The Beika girl
by missvikingdc
Summary: Emiko Mouri was raised in London by her mother alone, at the age of 16 she finally got to experience her first trip back to her roots. In a quest for her origins will she also find herself?
1. Emiko

**DISCLAIMER: THE CHARACTERS (MOST OF THEM AT LEAST) BELONG TO GOSHO AOYAMA**

 **AN: I am actually fixing this fan fict in order to conclude it**

4am was what was showed on the alarm clock when Emiko opened one of her eyes and it was not even a minute later when she smashed it off covering the ground with its pieces. Usually she wouldn't jump out of her bed especially this early in the morning but this day was different.

"O-HA-IO" The pronunciation was completely horrendous and the face coming with it wasn't any better. Anyway she was full of energy, ran like a tornado passing her mother only to jump into the shower, which left her mother bewildered in the corridor. After a quick shower she carefully brushed her long curly dark brown hair. The girl hesitated a while on which makeup to use or if she should use any but finally decided to go bare faced. It wouldn't last for the whole flight anyway and it would probably mean that she'd have to start all over again. After slapping her face with both hands she quickly headed downstairs through the wooden stairs which made a lot of noise.

"Gosh Emiko! What's with all that noise? It's not going to go well for you in Japan with such manners." Ran ended her sentence with a long sigh.

From the weight of her 33 years old she knew life wasn't always going as planned, it was written all over her face as well. The young woman had a tired face which was probably caused by years of hard work trying to climb the professional ladder while raising her daughter by herself. She never had the time to take care of herself, doing the bare minimum when it came to that. Thus she kept a style close to her high school years even though she would tie her hair in a way that gave her a strict look.

No need to expect an answer from Emiko she was already miles away, if not in another galaxy. The teenager was totally in her thoughts, her "Japanese for dummies" pocket edition in one hand while slowly eating her corn flakes with a spoon with the other. As for Ran, she was wondering if it really was a good idea to let her daughter go. It surely wasn't an easy thing to to do, letting her baby go so far away, especially for a full year.

The idea came to Emiko when one of her friends went abroad to study for a year on an international exchange program. She just thought it would be nice and asked many, many times her mother. Ran always said no until Emiko's 16th birthday when she was given a plane ticket to Tokyo Haneda. Emiko was on a high since that day while her mother was worried, it was hard for her to imagine a life without her daughter since they always just lived together. Although her biggest fear wasn't loneliness but her daughter's desire to go back to her roots and look for her father.

It was the true quest of Emiko, to find answers about her origin, any attemps so far had remained vain because her mother never talked about her time in fact that it was the perfect opportunity to find out about him was obviously somewhere in her mind and of course it wouldn't be bad to have a bit of fun on the way.

Emiko took most of her stuff downstairs in a relative silence, Ran was only occasionally asking questions to make sure they didn't forget anything. It wasn't a habit, when together they would usually talk a lot or most likely Emiko would speak and Ran would listen. Of course Ran would give her opinion but only when she was asked to do so. Despite not being super close they were definitely very devoted to one another.

The teenage girl was trying to take a mental picture of Mayfair since she wouldn't see it again anytime soon. She took an even closer look of their third floor flat, a very decent one in a very expensive part of town, maybe it was a bit small but since they were only two it didn't really bother her. Other than her friends she was going to miss her room which was actually bigger than her mother's. It was the first time that Emiko got a bittersweet feeling since the plan was set in motion.

She had about 40 minutes to say goodbye to London on her way to Heathrow. Both of them stayed silent inside the car, from time to time Ran would look at her daughter who was totally day dreaming. Of course Ran was sad to let her Emiko go but she decided to keep it in, it had been a long time since she stopped showing how she truly felt. Anyway she showed her brightest smile, she didn't want to share her concerns, it had to be Emiko's best day.

The Mouri family sat on a bench drinking their favourites Starbucks iced coffee. Ran was staring at her daughter, she could see how grown up she was, she could see her reflection in her, she could see him too, in that young confident and joyful woman. Of course she sometimes wondered if things could have been different, if she really made the right choice when she chose to leave Tokyo and decided to raise her child alone. The past never comes back, the only thing Ran could do now was to pray for the best.

As the gate was announced Ran suddenly asked "You'll be careful in Japan, huh?"

"Mom" Emiko growled slightly annoyed.

"Don't do anything stupid there, ok?"

"Mom..."

"And be gentle with your grandparents too."

"Mom! I'll be fine okay?" She held her mother tightly, Emiko was at least as worried as her mother, in fact she was scared to leave her alone. What would her mother become without her? The two never left each other's side, it had always been the two of them. Ran never married, never brought a man home either. She didn't trust men, she didn't have time for them either and maybe she was also scared to share her daughter.

But now, now it was time to let go. The gates were opened, it was time to say goodbye. They had long passed the so called "passenger only" zone when they proceeded and hugged tightly for what seemed to be an eternity. Emiko felt so many emotions while passing the gates with her boarding pass in hand, she was somewhere between extreme excitement and extreme sadness. Emiko waved once at her mother and never looked back.

Emiko knew the international airport pretty well from her previous trips abroad although this time she was going way further than Spain, France or Italy. It took an extra effort to pass through the duty free stores without buying anything but she quickly found her way to her plane's gate. Emiko had picked her seat as soon as possible, although she knew that she wouldn't be able to stay awake the whole flight Emiko still wanted to sit at her favourite spot which was at one of the wing window. Emiko was obviously the closest one from the porthole, next to her she noticed the charming accent of a 30 years old American man, he wasn't looking bad with his 3-day beard. As she kept starring for a little bit too long the man eyed her as if to quickly scan her, it was at this exact moment that she realized that she looked like a Japanese girl who had never seen a blond guy before. Emiko quickly looked out at the window pretending that nothing had happened. In fact it was the thing that bothered her most, it never really mattered before to look Japanese but living in Japan will surely be a twist. Unlike the others foreigners she will look like a local and this sounded totally awkward already.

The flight went well, time literally flew by as Emiko skipped half of it sleeping, when she finally woke up she instantly tried to read some Japanese but her vision seemed blurred and she just couldn't do it. Emiko let out a "shite", punched the side of her seat making the American man stare at her once again. Emiko was almost disappointed to have given away her non so secret British nationality. She continued to mumble the word "great" for a little while and decided to listen to some J-pop that she sort of borrowed from her mom's old stuff. It sounded a bit old but nothing too bad, one good thing was that she was already feeling familiar with the sound of the language. It was that kind of moment when she felt like "Easy, I'm sure I can do it!" but the "that's impossible" time was never too far.

The airbus landed before midday, Emiko was euphoric which made her look pretty energetic for someone who had to sit still for half day. During the landing she kept looking all around repeating "this is Japan, this is Japan..." The feeling was just amazing.

Even though her mother said yes to her request Emiko still had not believed her for a long time, there was no way that she would be going this far. The sight of the huge airport was absolutely breathtaking, it was as if she had just ran a marathon. The girl needed to take a hold of herself, after all it was just a normal airport. She then thanked whoever made English an international language and simply followed the signs all the way to her luggage.

It was then that she felt awkwardly British for the first time ever, when she faced a very confused immigration agent frowning while holding her Japanese passport. After walking through the last security check , she finally got to the exit where her grandparents were waiting for her. It didn't take more than 5 seconds to spot a huge "EMIKO" placard with at the end of it a 58 years old Kogoro Mouri and his wife both looking very happy. The man's hair was fully grey just as expected for man of his age. However he looked very good and had clearly made an extra effort when dressing on that day. Meanwhile Eri was elegant as ever, in a single glance Emiko noticed how her mother reassembled her grandmother and it was probably a good sign for the future. She walked towards them in a quick pace while looking at the ground just to think about what to say, what to tell them.

She remembered the moment her mother called her grandparents to asked them if it would be okay for them to take care of her while she was in Japan. Before she had actually dialled Ran was looking at the phone while mumbling and sighing. After she finally did, her daughter realised that she had barely heard Japanese in her lifetime. Thinking about it she wondered why she had not been taught any Japanese, most words she knew were dish names. She had never talked to her grandparents, only saw them on very few pictures and the girl wasn't even sure if Ran kept in touch with them.

Anyway, despite her lack of practice she had to go for it. "Ohayo" Emiko tried with a large smile on her face.

Eri hugged her while Kogoro started to speak in Japanese, Emiko wasn't quite sure who he was talking to and stayed silent, when Eri broke the hug she started to say something in Japanese and with this Emiko was sure that it was to her. Then the girl realised that she might have picked the wrong strategy.

She hit her face with her palm and then gave them a blank look, as a result the couple started to exchange a look. Kogoro grabbed the suitcase while Eri put her arm around her granddaughter's neck before asking politely "Shall we get going?"

Emiko nodded and followed them to the rental car, as soon as Kogoro started to drive through Tokyo Emiko's eyes didn't know where to look anymore. The skyscrapers, the buildings, the cars, the traffic and this massive crowd it was nothing like London. The teenager couldn't actually believe that she was from that city, not only she was Japanese but she was also a pure Tokyoite. At least that was what she learned from the very few things Ran let slip away occasionally, indeed she didn't know much about her mother's life in Japan. Sometimes it felt like she didn't even know who she was, as if both of her parents went missing.

When she snapped out of it she spent a few minutes trying to decode what Eri and Kogoro were discussing, one word or two seemed familiar but she wasn't quite sure yet. They soon spotted her looking at them.

"Are you learning?" Eri turned to Emiko

"Yes... I didn't mean to interrupt your conversation or intrude, I didn't get a thing anyway" Emiko responded quite embarrassed.

"It's not like you missed anything" Eri giggled making Kogoro mumble something. "Do you enjoy your trip so far?"

"I love it, although I just got here and I didn't get to see much yet."

"Tour, tour, tour!" started to scream a joyful Kogoro which surprised both Emiko and Eri.

"That's right we will guide you through the city another day" Eri winked.

They quickly made to the detective agency, the couple climbed the stairs first while Emiko stood still, trying to take her hundredth mental picture of the day, of the day, even doing the gesture with her hands. Emiko was extatic, it was the place where her mother grew up. Realizing she was looking totally stupid she ran up the stairs to catch her family up.

The agency part looked a bit old fashion, there was something, maybe it was the atmosphere. She didn't know why exactly but she loved that place already. Emiko quickly noticed lots of newspaper covers on the wall, all she could read was her own family name, it was only then that she noticed Kogoro's face on the pictures. Nonetheless she was taken to her room by Eri before being able to comment anything. Eri opened the bedroom's door and invited her in.

"It was your mother's room, it didn't change, and we barely touched a thing... You see when Ran left she was so young we thought that she'd come back." Eri seemed to be dreaming away for a little, her eyes turned to Ran's portrait.

Emiko sat on the bed next to her suitcase and stared at her grandmother "I'm sorry". She suddenly got up and hugged Eri tightly against her.

"Feel free to make that room yours" with that Eri kissed her forehead and left to prepare lunch.

The teenage girl Sat on the bed and looked around the room for a while, the room's colours perfectly fit her tastes, most of the room was painted in off white, and there was also a touch of purple which was nicely reminded on the bed's sheets. Facing the bed, just next to the door was placed a huge wardrobe no wonder why her mom had a room full of it in London. Ran's old desk was right next to it, everything seemed to be in order. A picture stood on the right of the desk, from that distance Emiko could see two persons on it, they seemed to be young, a boy and a girl. Emiko didn't need to get closer to take a strong guess on that it was her mother with some other guy. Something else had caught her attention, she saw it the very first second she came in: a huge London poster. To her it seemed like her mother had a thing for London already back in her Tokyo days _._ She stood up and made a few steps toward the poster, it represented the most famous places of the capital along with some clichés, it was nothing fancy Ran could have bought it in any decoration store in the world. She dragged the chair backwards, sat at the wooden desk. She passed a hand on it, it was perfectly clean just like the whole room, someone had fully cleaned it and it was most likely Eri.

So far she had not found anything surprising about her mother. She let out a heavy sigh before letting her head fall on the desk a bit too violently and rested there for a while. Emiko turned her head towards the picture and finally opened her eyes to take a look at it. Her mom was in a blue coat while the boy had a green jacket over his sweater, they were both doing what seemed to be an extremely old fashion pose although the boy overdid it, they were standing in front of a castle with a bright smile on their faces. "What a moron..." Emiko whispered. Ran looked so happy back then, she apparently had nice friends. Emiko wondered hat had happened to her?

Ran didn't look sad or depressed, nothing like that but rather she was totally jaded. For a split she'd look happy and the following second she'd be gone in her little own world, it was like nothing could really touch her. How many times her daughter witnessed it, wondering what was on her mind. Emiko secretly wanted what everyone wants in this world, which is a family but along the years what she wanted was to see her mother stop living vicariously. Ran kept herself busy with work, never took time for herself, never hanged out with friends neither men. Although Emiko knew that she saw one or two men, she never got to meet them.

Soon it was time for lunch, the three of them ate in silence a delicious dish that for once Emiko couldn't even name. This long silence felt really awkward for the British girl still she couldn't do anything about it, it wasn't like meeting your grandparents for the first time at the age of 16 in a far foreign country was normal. She gulped some water to ease her throat but she couldn't bear it any longer.

"So you're a detective?" she suddenly asked looking at Kogoro.

"Euhm... I... Yes I am" he stuttered.

"Oh that's cool, like in the movies and books. I am sure you were even better than Sherlock, right?" Emiko was so excited, her eyes seemed to be shining even brighter. Much to her surprise her compliment seemed to make her grandmother laugh seeing how Eri couldn't catch her breath.

"Sherlock Holmes, him?" She asked pointing her finger at her husband, she laughed so hard that she even started to cry. She was quickly cooled down by Kogoro's angry look "He was very famous in Japan a few years ago, he was called the "sleeping sleuth"..."

"Was?"

"Now I am a teacher" Kogoro quickly bounced back.

Seeing his struggle Eri felt like giving extra precisions "Actually ever since he got tired of celebrity he became a teacher at the police academy but he still uses the agency as a study."

"Oh I see" Emiko's fingers had started to dance around her glass while listening. She then dreamed away trying to imagine that old man as a skilled detective but something wasn't working there. "And you? What is your occupation?"

"Oh me?" she continued after a little pause to think about her sentence, it wasn't like she was speaking English every day and Eri clearly lacked practice. "Actually I'm a teacher too, I teach law at the university. I was an attorney before that..."

"The best... You were the best" Seeing his wife embarrassment Kogoro excused himself and left for his study.

Emiko quickly imitated her grandfather as she left to go back into her room, she was a bit too tired to keep on talking and besides that she had plenty of time to catch up with her family. She locked herself in and passed the afternoon unpacking her stuff, while putting everything in the wardrobe she discovered several dresses and a kimono which maybe could prove to be useful if she ever feelt like fighting a bunch of yakusa. The teenage girl opened the window and looked outside for hours, observing the street it wasn't the most beautiful scenery she ever saw but she was still very pleased to enjoy it for a year. She then listened to her walkman while lying down on her new bed, she was trying to overcome the jet lag but the excitement wasn't enough anymore to keep her awake, instead she was just in some sort of trance staring blankly at the ceiling. Emiko went for a shower and announced in her night clothes that she was going to skip dinner and sleep a bit earlier. She kissed her grandparents goodnight, locked herself in her room and sat at the desk her mobile phone in hands. Her first day in Japan was done, it was about 8 pm in Tokyo and midday in London and in no way her mother would answer the phone at that time. Emiko merely sent her a text before heading to bed.

"Sweet dreams Okaasan!"


	2. In charge

**AN : This is the new version of the chapter 2 so if you read the next chapter some stuff might be weird. The same goes for someone who would by any chance restart the fan fic. With this said enjoy!**

Emiko fell from the bed as she tried to turn off the alarm but she found herself on the wrong side of the bed and fell on the ground. She climbed back on as it seemed like the shortest path to cut the annoying noise off, while doing this, Emiko also found the switch and turned the lights on. However their intensity totally blinded her which caused her to fall back on the bed, after a moment she managed to open her eyes just to stare blankly at the London poster in front of her. It sure wasn't an easy thing to wake up when suffering from jet lag, a few seconds later Emiko recalled everything and was finally ready to kick the day off.

"I wish you a good first day at school, may you behave yourself well. No I mean seriously, enjoy it as much as possible." Emiko had mixed feelings about her mother's text, it was as comforting as it was scary but Ran probably just meant that she should remember where she was while trying to have fun. At least that's what the girl decided it would mean to her.

Emiko came out whistling after a mid temper shower, ready for a Japanese breakfast. Eri was rather amused by her granddaughter's behaviour, she really brought a new atmosphere in the house, something lively and she loved it. It was rejuvenating, as if her own daughter had finally come back, yet it was Emiko and not Ran. The feeling was still great, they finally got to know each other and be part of the same family, Emiko wondered why it took them so long though. This mood quickly wore off when she faced her breakfast: rice, miso soup and banana. Emiko thought about her good old marmalade and mumbled a "wonder what the Queen would think about it..." which went unnoticed.

"If you want something else I can always get it for you tomorrow" Eri gently proposed, her head tilted, checking on Emiko's chop sticks ability but she was brushed off by a "that's fine". That kind of breakfast was enjoyable as she got to share it with Eri plus she didn't have to cook for herself for once, not that her mother was already gone by breakfast time but just because Ran wasn't willing to cook at home. "Alright it's time to go to work" said Emiko's grandmother gathering her documents, she didn't receive any answer but a panic look from Emiko. "Don't worry, Kogoro is going to go with you. You will be just fine. I have prepared you a bento, have a good day." A smile and a kiss on her forehead and she was gone, Emiko changed into her Japanese uniform and took a minute to share a selfie on social medias that she had promised her friends.

Kogoro and Emiko walked towards the high school, they stayed silent for most of the way walking side by side. Emiko could feel a distance between them, although he had good reasons to not talk to her he also seemed to never look at her which bothered her a lot. She thought that he had waited for that moment as much as she did. They were family and she started to wonder if he was blaming her for something the same way she had been blaming herself for a long time. She had been staring at him, holding back for a long time when he very fortunately broke the silence.

"I am sorry" he stuttered. She stood still and looked at her grandfather forcing him to stop "my... my English is bad, very bad. Sorry."

Hearing that she finally relaxed and even admitted "So is my Japanese, right?" With things cleared out of the way, she wrapped an arm around one of his and they walked quietly together. Conversation was unnecessary as long as they understood each other, still Emiko was really embarrassed when they walked in the Teitan high school together, the students gaze on them was almost unbearable but she held onto his arm. The hallway was huge, filled with shiny trophies from Teitan past glories. However, Emiko didn't get the chance to take a look at the showcase as they went directly to the headmaster office, the man was near retirement, he had almost lost all of his hair and what remained on his skull was grey. Mr Arai invited them in his office after shaking both the student and the grandfather's hand, the headmaster started as soon as they sat a sort of speech in a really fast Japanese making the British girl wonder if he even knew she was a foreigner. Mr Arai kept his flow of words or rather sound while giving her tons of papers, he seemed to have asked her something as he stopped and was now staring at her. Emiko gave an SOS look to Kogoro who seemed to have drifted away from the man's talk, still he came to her rescue and after exchanging a few words with the headmaster he led her out of the office.

Kogoro gave her the block of papers and started speaking while Emiko put it inside her bag "You go to class 17 B, it's up. You have English" he lent her another page this time with handwritten kanji "it is for the teacher".

She took the note off him and said "English, huh? I'll see what I can do!" Emiko struggled a while to find the stairs, she didn't dare to ask directions and just wandered around. On her way to the 17 B classroom she tried to decode the note which made her almost trip, she had no idea of what was written on there, just looking at it made her realize how hard it will be just trying to follow the lessons. It was going to be a funny year for sure...Once she found the classroom she did hesitate for a minute or two but had no other choice than knocking on the door, surprisingly she didn't get any answer, when she was about to knock again the back of her hand almost met the face of a woman in her 30's. Fortunately she stopped just in time, Miss Tanaka made her bangs fly away from her forehead in a sigh of relief.

"Oh dear oh dear" said the English teacher facing what seemed to be yet another late student. Emiko was about to say something, she should have excused herself and Miss Tanaka's English was not far from the mark, so incomprehension wasn't really an excuse there. But still the teenager went silent, her voice turned off she just gave her the kanji note. A smile illuminated the teacher's face who made way for Emiko to enter, everyone in the room was totally ready and silent, no one reacted to the intrusion though and the teacher whispered instructions remained also unnoticed. Miss Tanaka closed the door and walked all the way to the back of the classroom leaving Emiko alone in front of her new classmates.

"Alright everyone, it looks like we have a newcomer in the class, so we will have her introduce herself." Emiko felt her whole body tense as she waited for the teacher to end her sentence, of course she had expected such an entrance but still she wasn't mentally ready. However she thanked god for letting her do that in English, a hand clap and she was set.

"Ermm good morning everyone. My name is Mouri Emiko and I am 16 years old. I am from London" A shiver went through the class as her mask of local was uncovered. "I've always lived there so it's my first time here in Japan, therefore my Japanese is really really bad. Ermm and I think that's it for now." Emiko took a quick look around the room and except the teacher they all looked pretty confused. Miss Tanaka then started to say something in Japanese, seemed like she was first talking to the class and then focused on one particular student, the boy suddenly grabbed his stuff and headed to an empty seat in the back of the room with a pissed look on his face.

"Mouri-san, Matsuo-kun will be in charge of you during your time here so whenever you need something just go and ask him." Said the teacher pointing at Kioshi Matsuo, a 16-year-old student, he wasn't tall but wasn't small either, he had thin features and what could potentially be a nice smile but was too pissed to show it off. Emiko felt sorry for being a burden and sat on Kioshi's former seat, she looked backwards at him sending a silent excuse but only received a long sigh back. Throughout the English class she judged the level to be better than what she expected but also that Matsuo-kun seemed to be the favourite student of Miss Tanaka which might explained how he got "in charge" of her, or maybe it was because of the note she brought.

Directly at the end of the class a group of 5 to 6 student gathered around her table, they were mostly girls. They all seemed very impatient and curious. They had probably asked her 5 different questions in Japanese before she managed to clear the situation. When she told them that she didn't really speak any Japanese despair could be read on their face and this was international enough to be understood. Right after that, they all went back to their respective seats as another teacher entered the class.

She really had a hard time listening to the lessons, it was boring to not understand a thing when you're usually a good student, but then the only thing she really understood was the numbers during the mathematic lesson. It was that kind of day when she was just trying to set everything up, she got her new school books, tried to memorize as many faces as possible. There was no point in listening for now, instead of that she tried to get valuable information on her classmates such as who is who, who is what and more importantly, who is with who.

Like most girls Emiko liked gossips and she had a feeling that this year she would have to get them by herself. She quickly spotted a group of girls sitting on the right hand side, filling the whole rank there with what seemed to be the leading girl at the end of the line. That sounds about right that friends would sit near each other if possible which meant that she was probably in the middle of a group since everybody had to move around to get her a seat. Another quick look around, she suspected the guy behind her who looked to be nothing special but also the girl on her left who was glancing back quite often to be at least good friends. What was surprising perhaps was that the girl on her right seemed to be looking back at the exact same guy. The rest of the seats were filled with smaller groups and various pairs but nothing too important in Emiko's opinion, she let out a desperate sigh looking at her blank page. People were taking notes so fast in kanji while she could only write her name that way 栄美子 and still it might have taken her way too long to do that.

Emiko's first lunch made it clear, absolutely no one wanted to sit next to her and she had to walk around for 10 minutes just to find an empty seat. A quick look around and she could see where all her classmates were sitting, all of them seemed to be in the same zone, all of them except one person. She made her neck stiff by looking around to find the boy who had been picked to help her. He was in fact hidden by his group of friends, about 7 students all males and they seemed to be older than him as well. All together they looked like a club or some kind of team. Suddenly she noticed their look on her and that included Matsuo-kun as well, , as a result she immediately looked down at her bento. It was still untouched and with five minutes left she didn't manage to eat half of it. The British girl had no idea of how her new compatriots managed such a feat.

Nevertheless, when classes were done for the day, and the bell had rung one final time everyone jumped off the chairs with most of their stuff already back in their bag, so did Emiko with a large smirk on her face. It seemed like some things were the same beyond borders. It was then that she realized that she had no idea of the homework she was supposed to do for the next day and that was what Kioshi was supposed to help her with.

"Matsuo-kun, wait for me!" she called him when he was about to pass the door before everyone else.

Kioshi sighed and went back inside the room "Yes?" he said raising an eyebrow.

"Again I'm sorry to bother you but I didn't quite get our homework... Could you give me a hand with that?"

Rather than answering he sat on top of the table and got his agenda out of his bag. Emiko assumed that it was his way to say, "Yes sure", "No problem at all", "My pleasure", even though there was no way he'd speak like that. Very conveniently the list of homework was pretty short and they could soon walk to their lockers and much to her surprise Kioshi was waiting for her at the exit, his bicycle next to him.

"What direction is your place?"

"This way... I think" she said pointing at the direction.

"Guess I'll walk you home then" he awkwardly winked at her.

"You're sure that you don't have to catch up with your friends, because I don't want to be too much of a burden to you".

"It's fine my house is this way too, moreover if I have to be in charge of you It's better to do it properly, right?" Kioshi said finally showing that he indeed had a nice smile.

"Yes, indeed... By the way, where did you learn to speak English like that?"

"Oh well, my parents travel a lot and when possible they take me along."

"Have you ever been in the UK?"

"Yes..."

The classmates walked all the way to the Mouri agency trying to smile, to joke, doing all the small talk that was necessary. In the end that first day at the Teitan high school was almost successful, well class was pretty terrible but at least she felt like she had found someone who she could hopefully count on. They already said "bye" when Emiko realized that she had forgotten to ask him important information.

"Matsuo-kun, wait!"

"Yes?"

"Déjà vu..." she said mumbling slightly

"What?"

"No nothing... I simply forgot to ask you your phone number and also at what name should I enter it?"

"Kioshi Matsuo" he announced himself proudly.

"Nice I think I got it. Kioshi, should I call you that way?" she asked once the number was in her mobile phone.

"Actually no, that'd be rude" he said while jumping on his bike. "I really have to go now, see you tomorrow Mouri-san" he waved at her.

She still had a lot to learn about the Japanese ways. Emiko checked the time on her watch: 4 pm. She rushed upstairs climbing the stairs two by two, she headed directly to her room without checking if Kogoro was in his study. It was about 10 am in London so there was a chance that her mother would still be home, Emiko was quite excited and logged in on Skype. After a rather annoying and long update, Skype was finally on and she immediately called her mother. Ran almost missed the call and nearly broke her chair while rushing.

"Hey sweetheart, it's so good to see you."

"Mom, I'm happy to see you too. Where you in a rush? You look out of breath."

"I ran for the call... How was your day?"

"It was an okay day, I mean I was late, I stole some guy's seat, the same guy got in charge of me and besides that, I didn't understand a word of what the teachers were saying. Oh, and they all look at me as if I were an alien, hopefully it's temporary. Fortunately I don't have too much work at home for now and... I think that's pretty much it."

"Is it going alright with your grandparents?"

"Yes they are really nice, Kogoro isn't very talkative but he really is caring and Eri is making up for him. She's really cool too but should I mention that her bento tasted weird."

Ran started to laugh really hard before commenting "Now you know why I became a chef!"

"So that's the explanation, I see... Oh oh oh mom have you noticed?"

"Noticed what?"

Emiko carried the laptop and turned around "I am sleeping in your room, your parents left it untouched, how cool is that?"

"Cool..." Answered a nervous Ran, she hoped that her daughter would take her anxiety for shared excitement.

Emiko put the laptop back on the desk, making the desk picture fall. She quickly placed it back on the right of the desk, Emiko took a second to contemplate it. This was the perfect opportunity to ask her mother who was the green jacket man. She was indeed about to ask her but something else on the screen caught her attention, she should have seen it immediately but was too excited by the room tour. Still it was there...

"Mom, sorry to ask you this but... Did you have a visitor when I called?"

Ran blurted an objection and denied what was obvious "Why do you say that?"

"Well it's a simple fact. I know fashion changes very quickly but still I'm pretty sure the jacket hanging on your doorknob is a men one."


	3. Open up your eyes

AN: 3rd update

Ran looked behind her, the jacket was there hanging on the doorknob. She couldn't believe her eyes among all the things they hurried to hide in the room they forgot his jacket, a thousand times she had told him to leave it in the hall but men never listen and that entire race was in a total vain. Ran was caught and couldn't help but blush heavily. She felt her temperature rise, her pulse accelerate but more importantly, she had that unreasonable feeling of guilt. Ran had done nothing wrong, sure she had hidden a man from her daughter but she didn't cheat on anyone. She was the responsible adult and Emiko was the little teenage punk.

"It's not your business! Didn't your mother tell you to not stick your nose in other people's private life?" she managed to answer finding back some sort of control on her nerves.

Emiko felt like being sparked, for once she was beaten with her own trick as her mother proved to be able to be a sarcasm master too. Still she was a bit disappointed that her mother didn't sense the humour in her question. Emiko was obviously a bit curious about the identity of the jacket's owner but she never expected an answer or neither intended to provoke the jacketgate.

"Mom I didn't mean to..." There was a long pause, a lot of embarrassment. Despite all that Emiko had to say something and trying to be nice she added "I guess that's only good news-"

But she was cut off by her mother "As I said it's none of your business. You really were not supposed to see that." At that moment Emiko could hear through the Skype call the noise of the front door being slammed. Ran heard it too and hurried to close the conversation "I have to go, I don't want to arrive last at my own restaurant. Bye sweetheart!" Ran blew a kiss to her daughter and instantly closed her laptop.

"Wait!" Emiko let both of her hands fall violently on the desk."Damn it!" she swore throwing herself on the bed, she closed her eyes and laid there for a short while before getting up again. The picture question will live to die another day, Emiko had better things to do anyway. Well that was if you could call homework "better things", she didn't exactly know what the teachers would be expecting from her so she'd better at least pay attention to her home exercises.

She moved on and tried as hard as she could, for more than an hour she tried to decode a History lesson and its exercise, but when she finally managed to understand one question she had no idea about the answer. Just like the Japanese language it seemed that her mother forgot to share her acknowledge. Therefore the British girl tried other subjects, nothing worked and there was less than an hour to go before diner. Emiko teared off a page from her notepad and rolled it into the shape of a ball before sending it directly into the wastebasket at the other end of the room. Exhausted and running out of time she resigned herself to ask for help, Eri was busy cooking so Emiko went downstairs to look for her grandfather. He had left the door of his study opened, Kogoro who was pretending to read the news while listening to the horserace didn't notice his granddaughter, Emiko had to knock on his desk to finally get his attention.

"Homework... Yes, of course." In his life Kogoro had received many request such as protecting someone's life, finding someone's first love and of course the classic "Does my husband/wife has an affair?" But help for homework, it had been more than two decades since he last did something like that. How touching was the scene, the old detective and his granddaughter sitting cross-legged on the floor, both holding dictionaries and trying to answer various kind of questions. Unfortunately they were interrupted by the diner, and they both literally gulped their whole plate, much to the cooker disapprobation. They ran back to the teenager's room, tried to solve a few equations, Emiko could handle these much better than Kogoro but still she needed him to read the instructions. After English, the mathematics were probably the subject she understood the best, it was sort of reassuring to see all those familiar formula although she had never liked mathematics that much.Emiko had always done okay in scientific subjects, still it took her a few tries before cracking the formulas since maths are much harder in Japan.

They were joined by Eri just when Emiko was solving the very last part of the math exercise. The former lawyer said something to her husband which made him get up and leave the room mumbling something else. Emiko tried her best to pay attention to each word they pronounced in order to at least snatch the meaning of one, but it wasn't going to happen just yet.

"It will come eventually" Eri interrupted Emiko who was deep in her thoughts trying to repeat each sound they had just pronounced. Eri sat on the bed and invited her granddaughter to do the same by a simple tap on the mattress, and commented "I am too old to sit on the floor".

"Sure"Emiko grabbed most of her stuff, put them at the end of the bed before joining her grandmother.

"May I take a look?" Eri asked lending both of her hands towards her granddaughter's copybook. After a nod approbation she started to go through all the exercises she did in collaboration with Kogoro, a good 10 minutes later she was ready to give her verdict. "Well you sure did good but..."

"No not but!" begged Emiko joining her hands together as if she was praying which made Eri laugh.

"I think you should write all that in kanji, I mean besides the English and the math teacher no one is going to understand your answers and your effort would go to waste."

Emiko sighed before admitting "I guess you're right but I don't know any it will take ages to write it."

Eri kissed her on her forehead "Come on, we can do it! Get me some paper, I'll write the kanjis and you'll recopy them."

Kanji by kanji they slowly rewrote everything late in the night, another kiss on the forehead and Emiko was gone to Dreamland. Her exhaustion state was pretty advanced and she had no idea if the upcoming 6 hours of sleep would be enough to recover. Probably not...

As soon as the famous London fog faded, Ran knew all along that it would be that kind of drizzling day, she was so melancholic. It was the exact same weather as the first day of her "great escape" in London, back then 16 years ago she was feeling the same. Somehow that rather short conversation with her daughter brought back her memories from that time, how alone she felt, how cold it was. There she was standing in her restaurant's backyard, if she were a smoker she would have surely smoked like two of the waiters were, instead she was resting her back against the wall. Ran was looking at the grey sky, her face was expressionless, she was deep in her thoughts and didn't notice the man approaching.

"You'll catch a cold" he said lending her the coat she had left inside the restaurant, Ran let him put it on her.

She turned to finally face him "You didn't come to ask how many tempura I sold during the service, do you?"

"Not really" admitted Charlie a wide smile on his face. Charlie Flynn was a 34 years old Londoner pastry cook, he was born and raised in the capital and although his mother was German, Charlie was as British as it gets. His hair was dark blond, just as his 3 days beard was and the same went for his thin moustache. The man was tall and athletic especially considering his occupation. He was well dressed, not to mention that he had his blue jacket on, which was exactly what Ran was staring at with a blankly look on her face. "Can I ever wear that jacket again from now on?"

"I am sorry, I don't really feel like laughing." Ran was avoiding his eyes and looked at her shoes instead.

Charlie noticed her attitude. He tried to go easy on her, avoiding her eyes as well, he made a few steps so that he actually was turning his back on her. "You won't be introducing me to your daughter anytime soon, will you?"

"It's not going to happen... If I'm honest I don't think I will..." Ran's attempt of using tact was shortened abruptly when the man finished her sentence.

"Ever move on..." he sighed and turned around to face her again. " I guessed so. That's what I call dedication, at least towards Emiko. I still don't know whether or not you're still somehow waiting for her father." As Ran's facial expression changed he knew she was going to make an objection "But you don't want to talk about it. I know!"

Ran and Charlie had known each others for about three years. Although you could say they were friends, they were seeing one another from time to time. Ran never let it go any further, she was stuck.

"Ran, you know what that means? We can't do this anymore."

"That's probably for the better." She faintly shrugged.

Without warning Charlie brought her in his arms and kissed her on the forehead "Of course you can call me whenever you need a friend. But for now, I have to go."

"Good bye Charlie." Ran didn't know anymore what to do nor what to feel. All these years gone and she was yet to make a decision for herself. Out of frustration she turned to wall and punched it hard enough to bleed.

The next day Emiko was as tired as expected, she even asked her grandmother for some coffee. For her second day at Teitan she told her dear Kogoro that he wouldn't be needed to walk her to the high school. Emiko almost got the wrong way a few times before spotting a group of students with the same uniform as her so she just followed them to the entrance. She had totally forgotten about her little daughter-mother talk, the teenager was way more concerned about surviving her second day at school. To complete that objective successfully the first mission that she had to go through was to find the right classroom for her biology lesson, so more likely a lab. But she had no idea of the location of the school labs, her backup plan consisted in finding Kioshi which was easier said than done. The time limit was 5 minutes and she estimated the class distance to be around 2 minutes. It left her with no other choice than using her mobile phone to call him for rescue.

"What is it Mouri-san? I was about to enter the class" Said a really annoyed Kioshi.

"I'm so sorry, I believe that I can't find the lab..."

"Where are you?" He asked sounding very annoyed

"I'm near the basket ball ground... Matsuo-kun? Matsuo-kun?" The impolite boy had already hung up.

"Mouri-san! Here!" Kioshi called waving his hand.

When Emiko reached the door, Kioshi had already started to run ahead of her making her struggle to catch him up. She was asking him to wait for her while he was asking her to hurry.

"Hurry up or we're going to be in trouble" Kioshi sprinted even faster when he spotted the teacher closing the lab door, who he prevented from doing so by stepping in.

"Sumimasen..." Kioshi excused himself and the rest remained lost in translations for Emiko.

"Sumimasen" she just copied her fellow classmate earning a smirk from him and rushed to her seat.

The coffee effect faded faster than Emiko expected and she started to yawn. Slowly her eyes closed, she fell asleep her head resting on her left hand, all that was perfectly hidden by a large strand of hair. She was only woken up by a push from Kioshi when everyone was leaving and she sat still.

"Did you forget to sleep last night?" He whispered.

"NO!" Emiko shouted and slapped the back of his head. "I spent the night recopying all our exercises in kanji and also I am still fighting against the jet lag."

"Sumimasen" Kioshi said trying to sound girly and making fun of her earlier try.

"Aho!"

Kioshi remained speechless for a little while and he just stood there. He shook his head as if to wake up "Don't you dare calling me idiot in my language!"

"Hey that's my language too"

The fight stopped as soon as they turned around and saw that the others were all gone, only the teacher was still there staring at them. They exchanged a look and ran for it again.

Emiko was starting to wonder if that was going to be her new lifestyle in Japan. During another class Kioshi had to wake her up by throwing his eraser at her. Again he had to rescue her, when the History teacher asked her to answer a question. Emiko just turned to him and literally sent him an SOS, after a sigh he devoted himself and asked for the permission to read her answer for her. But this was not the most surprising little event of the day, what really shocked the class was when the British girl raised her hand and actually gave the solution of an equation. Everyone was breathless and Emiko had a huge grin on her face as if saying "I do know the numbers".

The last class of the day was a more relaxing one, at least this was true for the grey cells. It was Emiko's first gym class in Japan. She opened the plastic bag which contained her brand new Teitan gym outfit and wore it right away. By the time she made it to basketball court, boys and girls had been divided in two groups which meant that Emiko would have to try to interact with the other girls from her class.

Also it didn't take her more than two seconds to guess that they were all going to play basketball, if the room itself wasn't clear enough then the fact that they were soon all asked to warm a up with one basketball each.

Emiko had always loved sports, especially the fun ones such as basketball, pointless running on the other hand were not really for her. She visibly was at ease and if anyone had been paying attention to her they would have seen it. However people only noticed her as she unsuccessfully tried to spin the ball on her finger.

The teacher formed 4 teams, 2 of each gender, much to Emiko's disappointment she wouldn't be able to kick any boy's ass. Her teammates took a few seconds to discuss their positions but none of them gave indications to the British girl. Still she kept on running back and forth with them, as she never received a pass she realized that she would have to create her own chance.

The girl took a moment to observe everybody around her, quickly taking a glance at the boys she noticed that they seemed to be competing quite hard, male hormones really were something. In all honesty Emiko would have rather struggled against them than not really playing with the girls. If they didn't want to give her the ball it meant that she had to take it by herself. None of the girls seemed to be especially more athletic or taller than her so it definitely was doable. She focused and made a nice jump pushing on her legs. She got just about enough on the ball to counter it, as a result the ball bounced away and she was the only one quick enough to react.

They all stopped playing and watched her. Without any further run up, she shot it from there in a rather unorthodox fashion. A nice, slow high ball, all eyes followed as the ball landed in a perfect swish. Emiko could probably consider herself as lucky. Still was it because she knew that she wouldn't be able to reach for the basket or was it because she actually wanted to show off? No one would ever know.

At the end of the day, she went back home alone as Kioshi went with his teamates, Emiko went directly in her room and threw herself on the bed. The teenager fell asleep with her headphones on. She thought that 5 minutes wouldn't hurt...

"Emiko, someone is there for you, at the agency!" Kogoro suddenly opened the door.

"Coming!" She answered raising her hand while her face was buried in her pillow.

The girl didn't know many people around there so it could only really be... "Kioshi"

"I told you to not call me by my first name, it's rude."

"Fine, what do you want Matsuo-kun?"

"I was coming to offer my help with your homework but I can also go home..." He said fainting to walk away.

"Okay okay fine, follow me." She led him to her room, closed the door behind him just to make sure Kogoro wouldn't try to listen.

As soon as he walked in he started to look around, however it looked as if he was stuck right beside the door. "Feeling homesick already?" Kioshi asked pointing at the London poster.

"Haha funny, well actually this was my mother's room, I only brought my clothes here." She grabbed a paper ball and threw it in the wastebasket which was at the other end of the room. The shot was a nice blind shot, so nice that it bounced twice against the wall before reaching its destination.

"You're good at this, aren't you?"

Emiko shrugged "I am just good at hitting the target. It's an old habit of mine."

"Have you ever thought of a sniper career?" Kioshi asked teasingly.

"Very funny but I don't think that's how it works."

"Well more seriously the softball team is looking for a pitcher."

"Isn't that sport like a cheap version of baseball?"

Turning on himself a few times, he looked like as if he was searching hard for something she did bring with her. He went through the entire room, he finally found it on the desk. He took the picture with his right hand and brought it to Emiko.

"Who are they? Is it your parents?"

Emiko's expression changed in a split second, she clearly was troubled, looking elsewhere she asked "Do I look like him?"

The Japanese boy didn't understand the question at first, Emiko had to repeat twice. The funny British girl was dead serious, Kioshi tried to recognize her features in the boy's face but couldn't find any. "Well... That's hard to say. You really look like your mother though."

The girl let out a very long and very desperate sigh clearly showing how disappointed the answer made her. She straightened and turned towards the boy "I don't know this man, I don't know my father either... In fact it's the first time that I see my mother close to someone. Guess I got a bit ahead of myself..."

Kioshi was bit stunned but he didn't say a word. He cautiously opened the frame and before Emiko could make an objection he said "Just checking something." He put the frame next to Emiko and looked at the precious picture holding it cautiously. "Me and Shinichi at Tropical land"

"What did you say?"

"My mother did that also on her pictures, when people still printed them out, she wrote names and places. Shinichi is the guy's name, she might have taken it on their date or something."


	4. I see trouble

_2 days, that was all it took. Only 2 days and I had forgotten what I really wanted, what really is my goal._

Emiko was sitting cross-legged on top of her bed, her back resting against the wall she was holding the frame between her fingers.

 _Shinichi... Just who are you? Mom's date? And if so... Could he be my father? Mom is the only person to have the answer and only god knows why she wouldn't tell me anything._

Emiko hid the picture in her nightstand, just like she was hiding a secret she didn't want anyone to see her precious picture. A few days passed and Emiko's behaviour had changed and she wasn't all excited about her trip anymore. An entire week passed and her smile was gone, she looked so depressed, everybody assumed that the British girl got homesick.

Kioshi didn't ask a question, people always told him to let the people confess by themselves and so he waited. She never told him what was on her mind and he ended up really worried about his "burden". Before he realized it, her problems became his problems. Every day after school he would join her and they would do their homework together which wasn't really fun, but still he chose that over his other friends. Also he intended to help her learn Japanese, "her language" as she called it, they would laugh about her mistakes. The normal Emiko was back and it helped Kioshi to clear his mind, in a split second he noticed the missing picture on the desk and forgot people's advice.

"What happened to the desk picture?" Unable to phrase an answer Emiko simply opened the drawer and invited her friend to take a look. "And why did you hide it?"

"I don't know" Emiko shrugged.

"Maybe you should try to find out if that guy is your father or not" he said while getting up.

"If only life was that easy" she sighed

"Stop talking like you're 80! Shit, I have to go now."

"Where are you going?"

"It's not your business!"

"I bet you're joining your girlfriend for a cheeky date" Emiko was observing his every move to spot his reaction.

He looked at her blankly as if she read through him, but the second after he regained composure, he shrugged and just left.

How composed was that guy to do that and then just leave. What really was going on and on in her was what he told her before that. Was it really that easy? Her work done she decided to relax and tried to forget about all that conversation. She sat beside Kogoro who was watching some weird film with traditional inspiration, Emiko decided to watch along although she already knew that she would be drifting really far away. Indeed she stopped trying to understand the film's action andstared at Kogoro for a while.

 _Does he know? Surely he knows, what kind of parent wouldn't know who its daughter was seeing. Also I doubt that mom would have had a one night stand, it's totally unlikely. A great detective should have sensed something._ Emiko was stopped in her thoughts by Kogoro's loud and disturbing laughter. _Ladies and gentlemen the great Kogoro Mouri._

"A problem?" He asked as he finally noticed that his granddaughter's eyes had left the screen a while ago and were now directed towards his own face.

"Hmm no... Actually I was just wondering if you had some pictures of mom when she was younger."

Kogoro brought several huge albums full of her mother's memories, going through them in a chronologic order she could see how the beautiful baby Ran used to be. What really was impressive was the amount of pictures they took of Ran's first months, a full album was filled with pictures of her before she even reached her first year.

 _That amount of pictures seems logical as she is their first and only child after all. It makes me think I am also mom's first and only child but she doesn't have much pictures of me. I guess she was too busy..._ Emiko was the one taking a hell lot of pictures and from time to time Ran would accept to make an appearance on it.

Little Ran was a real princess, always smiling to the camera, she just looked perfect. Emiko and Kogoro started to play a game which should have been called "and who's that?" It actually wasn't a fun game to play but Emiko was collecting what could potentially be crucial information, the actual fun fact was that the great Kogoro didn't suspect his granddaughter a second of collecting data about her mother's former relationships.

"Who is that little girl with mom?"

"Aaaah Sonoko Suzuki, the best friend of your mother, they were always together."

The flow of pictures was reducing a bit and as a result the time was speeding a bit, the people on the pictures changed, some new faces made their first appearance. Ran changed class, made new friends. She seemed to be quite close with a little boy, they had both the same cute smile and were obviously wearing the exact same blouse and the exact same yellow hat.

"Kogoro, who's that?" Emiko asked with a total innocent tone, she indeed had no idea that she had just dropped a bomb.

Kogoro froze, he couldn't seem to find any words and tried to earn some time by making a humming sound. He realized the huge mistake he had just made, Eri and he had agreed on not telling her anything about her father, yet it would have been impossible to deny her request. Kogoro was cornered, the rest of the albums were filled with pictures of him. His only option was to lie to Emiko, Eri and Kogoro promised themselves to protect Ran's secrets.

"I can't find his name but he's not important... I have to work now... Something to prepare for the academy." He suddenly closed the album and placed all of them back to their original place.

 _Something is definitely off with him, he had that split second of hesitation before pretending he doesn't remember the little boy's name. Does he think I am blind or stupid? I see that he looks like Shinichi._

Emiko decided to stay patient, she had to play it discreetly, Kogoro was a pro after all. During the dinner she was just looking at her grandparents faces, Eri looked perfectly calm while Kogoro was all worried and sweaty. Emiko was good at acting, back in England she was playing drama with her high school and the stage was nothing scary to her. Therefore despite her need for the truth, she was composed and had a smile on the face. She was driving the conversation, using random subjects such as the weather or school to lower their guard.

Once done eating, she excused herself and said that she would be reading before heading to bed. Emiko locked her room, she waited a while and actually started to read a book. She switched off the light when enough time had passed, instead of going to bed she opened her door just an inch opened and sat beside it. At first she could only hear whispers, quickly they tended to become louder and louder. Obviously her Japanese had got a bit better, she could finally understand words and sometimes short sentences. From what she could get Eri sounded really annoyed, if not angry and saw only asking question. As for Kogoro he seemed to be trying to answer her and seemed to come up with a plan. Although she had no idea of what the plan was, she assumed they were trying to prevent "her" from finding "him", that is to say Shinichi.

 _Why all these lies? Do they need to protect me from something? Anyway I guess I'll find out._ Emiko quietly closed the door and went in bed. However she couldn't quite sleep, questions were overflowing in her mind. She decided that she might as well get up, get a drink and if someone dared asking her anything she would have used the "jet lag" excuse. A few gulps of water later, she lying on the sofa and stretched her legs. She heard a noise as her foot kick the side table, when she got up to check on the damages she noticed that the table was fine, but also Kogoro's mobile phone. Emiko took it to place it back, at the last second she tried to press the button and realized the phone had been left switched on. She placed the mobile phone close to a light and examined the trace of his greasy fingers. A reversed "C" later, she had a full access to the phone therefore she realized what she was doing. Feeling anxious about her new international spy lifestyle, she went back to her room and locked herself in bringing the phone along.

Emiko's awful face was a testimony of her late night quest and she had to keep her laugh inside when the poor detective started to look for his mobile phone. She discreetly put the missing item in his coat, a place he had already checked which just had driven him crazy.

The British girl would have liked to have more time to investigate, the time at school was a bit like a waste to her, parts of it were really nice like socializing but besides that she was learning much. The teachers were good, the only problem was her, Emiko was paying enough attention and it was not really because of the language barrier. She was almost obsessed and kept staring at the contact list she copied from Kogoro's phone.

However there was one subject she couldn't sit and day dream and it was PE. Usually she would have Kioshi to translate but he was being weirdly distant that day, thus she observed the two teams that were formed and realized that a game of handball had just started. Kioshi was on the opposing team in goal, as things stood Emiko found herself on the left wing. She had already played this sport a few times, it was a quite entertaining one to her and pretty easy for her. She finally received the ball, dribbled away from the right outside defender, ran passed the right half defender, let the ball bounce high up in the air. Emiko made a huge jump over the goal crease, the action seemed to be in slow motion for the poor goal keeper, Kioshi didn't even move a millimetre when she grabbed the ball and shot towards his goal. He didn't even follow the ball with eyes, instead they were all the on Emiko who crashed on the ground. He was about to go help her to get up but one of her teammates gave her a hand.

Emiko went back to her side of the pitch and was about to send a distant excuse to Kioshi, much to her surprise he was being scold at by his friend. _His girl friend... His girlfriend?_ She ran to them, Emiko somehow wanted to help him but weirdly enough she wasn't welcome. The girl directly attacked her, screaming something in Japanese. Emiko froze, she had gone silent looking at her blankly. Kioshi got in between trying to prevent his girlfriend from hitting his friend "YAMETE! STOP!" Seconds later the girls were separated by the PE teacher, and they were taken with Kioshi to the headmaster's office. The old man was quite surprised to see the foreigner in his office for behaviour problems, after a lecture they were sentenced to an hour of detention each next Saturday.

The rest of day the two friends couldn't even exchange a look, as Emiko felt a threatening gaze on her the whole time. _What the hell did I do?_ As a result she didn't move an inch, closed her eyes and prayed for the best. When the final bell rang, she had already packed her stuff and sped top speed out of the room, she wasn't even thinking of where she was going and ended in the hallway. Emiko wandered around there, she started to look at the trophies, there were hundreds of them, Emiko didn't bother to read what was written on them. Emiko just looked at the pictures, eventually finding one of her mother performing a karate kick. _Totally expectable from mom, I just wonder... If there is a picture of Sonoko somewhere here, or maybe... Shinichi!_ Emiko was a meter away from her previous position standing in front of a picture of Shinichi playing football. He was wearing his white and blue stripes with Teitan written on the front, her heart nearly stopped. Although she still had no idea if he was her father or not, she couldn't bring herself to not see him in that way.

"Do you know him? You know he is LONG gone by now!" said the English teacher, one hand on each hip.

"Tanaka-sensei!"

"He was a great football player, I believe he was the captain of the team."

"You do know him?" Emiko's heart was racing as she asked her.

"Yes, everybody knew him in the high school, unfortunately he quit the team and also after some time he sort of disappeared ... Anyway I graduated when he was just in his first year."

"So you know his name, do you sensei?" her hands were now clenched into fists.

"Shinichi Kudo, but I'm not quite sure."

"Thank you sensei!" She had already turned her back and was running away not leaving a chance to her teacher to ask any other question.

On her way back to the agency she started to think again about what her English teacher told her "I'm not quite sure". _Well I'm not quite sure either... But anyway I need to find him._

"I'm home Kogoro!" _If Shinichi isn't my father he might know him, that's why I need to find Shinichi._ Emiko headed straight to her room, she kicked her schoolbag in, grabbed snacks and locked herself in her own little world. In the 21st century internet was probably the safest information source, maybe not... .uk had no clue of who "Shinichi Kudo" was, which made sense. The teenage girl was hopeless, thinking that she might as well give up on her obsession. She wasn't even enjoying her time in Japan because of that, and it was not what she wanted. _It's 11 am in London I might have just enough time to give a call to mom._

 _Wait 3 missed calls from Kioshi, I guess I'd better call him first then._ She had already pressed the call button, the thought of calling her mother was long gone.

"Moshi moshi!"

"Hey Kioshi, can you talk right now?"

"Haha that's not funny you know Emiko."

"I know, I know... What did you want?"

"I wanted to talk about this morning. Listen I am sorry about what happened and about your detention as well."

"Hmm yeah. What happened actually? I scored an okayish goal and the minute after I had a furious Japanese girl screaming at me."

"It's a bit complicated... Haya and I already had an argument yesterday, she got mad at me during the game too."

"Tsk tsk tsk She got mad at me! What did I even do?"

"That's embarrassing... You see you're a girl and I'm..."

"Oh wait wait wait! Is she jealous of me? She thinks I am going to try to steal you from her."

"Yes..." He was stopped in this thoughts by Emiko's huge laughter it sounded almost evil. "What's so fun about it?"

"Well tell her she's got nothing to worry about."

"Yeah nothing!" Kioshi joined her in her laughter.

"Nothing at all."

They kept laughing for a few minutes, slowly but surely they managed to catch back their breath which was followed by a long minute of silence. The situation was a bit uncomfortable, they need to break the silence as soon as possible.

Kioshi went for it "How is it going with your father?"

"I don't know much yet, but I have a plan."


	5. Friendship

"Moshi moshi!"

"Hmm hey... Hi! Do you speak English?" Emiko was really stressed, calling someone else than Kioshi in Japan was a first and trying her newly acquired Japanese skills would have been a bit much.

"A little..." the voice was really hesitant.

"Great!" She said in a rather excited tone, realizing later that it might be a little inappropriate. "I am sorry to disturb you but..." it took her a sigh to continue her sentence further "It's a bit complicated, I am looking for my mother's Japanese friends. Her name is Ran Mouri you were..."

"Wait! Ran Mouri! You're the daughter of Ran?" Surprise and shock could be heard on the other end of the line.

"Yes my name is Emiko..."

"You have to come for the dinner , ok?"

"Hmm yes" the places had been switched and Emiko was really hesitant.

"Great! I can't wait, I'll send you the details. Bye!"

"Bye."

 _What a strange person, I'll see what I can learn from that dinner._

The teenager shrugged the thought away, although the dinner was promising Emiko had to face her school detention in the afternoon. She still couldn't understand how she got into this, she didn't know what were the words Kioshi's girlfriend screamed at her.

 _To tell that I needed to get all the way to Japan to get my first detention, that's ridiculous... Kioshi's girlfriend is weird that's for sure, she is jealous of me and I don't even know why... Just a bad time to pass through._

She clapped her hands grabbed her stuff and opened the door in order to run out unnoticed of the agency. Emiko wanted to avoid the embarrassment of facing her grandparents before going to high school on a Saturday, she unfortunately failed as she met them on her way to the exit. Thus Emiko was asked to "try to avoid" to be sent to detention again. _As if I did something._

Emiko had tried to text her friend a hundred times but Kioshi never answered, also he wasn't coming anymore after school to help her. Actually since their phone call after the incident they didn't exchange a word, or neither communicate in any other way. To her it seemed like there was an unbreakable wall between them, something or rather someone she couldn't overcome which weirdly upsetsher. When she made it to Teitan the couple was already in the gymnasium, the teacher ordered them to clean it thoroughly and they were soon joined by Emiko. At first she tried to greet them but only received a death glare from Kioshi's bodyguard. Or was it a watchdog the teenager couldn't tell, the atmosphere was a bit too tensed to her taste, she decided that she'd better get some space and went to the storage room. It was such a dusty mess, it took her a lot longer than expected to clear it.

Emiko got out of the dark storage room, she looked around her but there was no trace of the couple, the only persons there were what seemed to be the Teitan handball team. There were only 5 girls playing which is not even a full team from what Emiko remembers of that sport's rules, 4 of them were passing the ball around while doing small runs and from time to time they would shoot at the one standing in the goal. As her detention was done she stood on the side line, she just watched them until the goalkeeper made a nice save. As a result the ball bounced towards her, she holds it with both hands at first then quickly making it bounce a few times. She raised her head up, Emiko saw a girl asking for the ball but in a split second she started a run. She dribbled a meter or two towards the group, she closed her eyes get her focus ready when she jumped and finally opened her eyes to visualize the goal when she aimed. The ball flew straight into the corner and the girl standing in goal could do nothing more than follow the ball with her eyes just as Kioshi did before her.

Emiko raised her hand and did her best to send a sorry smile to the girls before taking her leave. She headed straight to her locker in order to put her pair of converse back on, she instantly noticed a block of paper which was popping out of the small metal door. She opened it and started to read the huge amount of documents. Each page was dated and untitled by the name of a subject, there was approximately a week of lessons translated into English. The work was pretty impressive, it might have taken hours to Kioshi to do all that, Emiko was left speechless by the act. She had no idea of how to return it to him but she'd surely find a way sooner or later.

She found herself if not late at least in a hurry, she quickly got dressed at the agency into something classy but casual enough to her taste. Emiko had no idea of what to wear, no idea of what sort of place she was going to or neither of what sort of impression she wanted to make. All that she knew about the dinner was that it was a great opportunity to collect information from someone who knew her mother. The teenager pulled of the excuse of a night at the cinema with her friends to escape the house off her grandparents guard. Emiko caught a cab and showed the text with the address of her destination to the driver. _Fingers crossed, I've brought enough money._

After taking a good chunk of her money the driver let her out in front a huge complex of towers, Emiko had never thought that people would want to live in such places which was probably due to her small fear of heights. The British wandered around a few minutes lookingfor the right building, once she found it another was to find the right apartment. Despite the fact the she knew the apartment number Emiko still hesitated before pressing the call button.

"It's me, Mouri-san!"

"Yes yes, come in! 10th floor on your right."

It was quite long to take the lift all the way up to the 10th floor, Emiko brushed a bang back and brushed it forth since she changed her mind a few times. She nervously checked herself one last time in the lift's mirror as she made it to the right floor and what a surprise it was to see her host waiting on the doorstep.

"I'm pleased to meet you Mrs Kyogoku" Emiko made step forward lending her hand.

"Call me Sonoko!" with that she did grabbed the teenager's hand but only to pull her in a tight hug.

A bit too tight to Emiko who was hardly breathing, she was left paralysed until the woman's embrace slightly opened leaving a gap. Seconds later a small child could be heard and the reason for the breakaway was discovered as a 2 years old girl had made her way to the doorstep. As cute as little girls can look this one was really cute, wearing a candy like pink pyjama with classic plait in her hair. Her mother quickly pulled her up on her shoulder.

"Come in" Sonoko invited her friend's daughter to follow her with a wink.

Sonoko obviously grew older but time had some nice effects too, prettier and elegant she had the style she used to lack. She wasn't wearing anymore provoking mini skirt or neither extravagant shoes, still her clothes looked really expensive. The same went for the apartment and probably for the whole tower both probably freshly built in Ginza. The decoration was wonderful, probably the work of some high rank designer, by the looks of things Sonoko was a lucky woman.

"Wait for me in the living room, I have to put her back in bed."

The little looked to be already asleep in her mother's arm, Emiko nodded and proceeded. However she couldn't help it to just sit on the sofa. Instead of that she examined each millimetre of the living room. The effort remained in a total vain as there were no personal items in the whole room besides a family portrait. _I guess they recently moved in or something._ Well there was still something personal in the room a family portrait, again the only visible trace of the past was a picture. _Makes sense I guess..._

"My husband is abroad and I just put the kids in bed. So it's only you and I for dinner..." Emiko placed carefully the frame back while trying to keep her cool. "Hope you like pasta!"

Emiko just hummed a yes. _At least that changes a bit from usual..._ She had a ton of questions to ask her but her mouth wouldn't let the words out although she really was trying. They were facing each other, sitting on opposite side of the table a glass of juice in their hands. Emiko was holding onto it as if it was the last thing protecting her on earth while Sonoko was staring at her intensely, scrutinizing her every expression.

"Emiko... How old are you?" asked Sonoko her head tilt on the left.

The teenager was stunned by how direct Sonoko brought up a real question, still she wondered what her mother's friend would really know or she was just being curious. "I am 16..." She instantly earned a smirk from her interlocutor. _Just what is she thinking about?_

"That's relatively old..." Sonoko bent herself closer to Emiko to look at her more thoroughly. "You really look like Ran, I feel like my old friend is in front of me."

They ate their pasta together while talking about good old times, really old times as most of her stories were more than 20 years dated. As for the hostess' cooking skills Emiko rated them as correct. After they were done eating they sat on the sofa to discuss things a bit further. Sonoko depicted the young Ran, joyful, cheerful, strong but fragile, courageous but scared of ghosts, cute but boyish at times. The mother of Emiko was a bit more serious but at least as caring of her loved ones, until recently Emiko thought as herself as the only person Ran loved.

"Did you keep in touch with a lot of your old friends?"

"Not really, you will understand when you will be my age. But besides that I met my husband when I was 17."

Emiko didn't give her much time to breath and asked another question right away. "Why did you lose track on my mother? You were really close, weren't you?"

"It is a good question, I don't know. Your mother moved abroad, she had not even told me, I was really sad when she left us."

Emiko clenched her hand under the table in a fist, she knew that this was her chance. "Where is my father?" _Fingers crossed._

Sonoko nearly dropped her jaw "Y-your father?"

 _Crap she didn't name him. Plan B shite._

"Shinichi Kudo, where can I find him?" Emiko had surely lost all of her cool when she asked it.

On the other hand Sonoko couldn't help but giggle, when she managed to stop herself and opened her eyes Emiko looked really annoyed by her reaction. "I'm sorry, I didn't want to be rude to you. Ran and Shinichi, it is a bit funny... But I guess not really. To answer your question, I have no idea of where you could find him. I haven't heard of him since... I don't know, maybe since Ran disappeared."

Emiko sighed when she realized that her expedition to this place was again in vain as the only thing she'd bring back from this would be a few anecdotes. The girl was exhausted, she had pushed herself a bit too far. Thus Sonoko called her a cab and told her that she'd definitely called her soon.

 _What do I have? Not much... Am I the only trace of what happened between mom and my father? That'd be pretty dramatic. It has to be the picture guy, it has to be Shinichi although Sonoko giggled she didn't object or anything like that. Shinichi Kudo is my father, I'm sure of it I just have to find him, I need to do it. I just want to talk to him, at least once... Thinking about it there's a chance that he didn't know that I exist, after all I was born in London and from what I heard mom left hastily. All I have is a picture, my grandparents' weird behaviour, what Sonoko said and also... I have that feeling, deep inside me I know._

After she made it to the agency, Emiko headed directly to bed where she eventually fell asleep holding her precious picture against her chest.

The service had just ended, Ran was checking the night's reservation when Charlie literally popped up out of nowhere as he appeared in a blink of time. Charlie was wearing a navy blue suit which was a bit unusual but matched perfectly with his eyes. He looked delighted and without any warning he kissed Ran and brought her up in his arms.

"Charlie, what was that for?"

"I have the greatest news!" Charlie was excited as a kid on a Christmas day level and was holding Ran's both shoulders.

On the other hand Ran was still a bit uncomfortable with her lover's bold behaviour, she was looking around as if it was still a secret relationship. The secret part had been scratched at the exact second she allowed Charlie to visit her at the restaurant, which might have been for the better. Still she didn't want anyone else to listen to their conversation and she dragged him to her office.

"What is this about?"

He held both of her hands and invited her to sit on her own seat "Remember the editor with who I had a recipe book project? Well, he is going to publish it!"

Ran instantly jumped out of her chair, hugged him her arms knotted around his neck. She was about to kiss him but instead of her lover's lips she surprisingly met his hand.

"Actually the book isn't going to be published here, at least not anytime soon."

Ran let out a disappointed "Oh" before falling back in her seat, she thought a second before asking "But where then?" Charlie didn't directly answer he first laughed, he even needed time to recover.

"Know what? That's the funny thing... They're going to publish it in Japan!" He lifted his arms up just like he was going to celebrate the news but he quickly realized that Ran wasn't.

Indeed she was stunned "Wait what? Why there? Why not here?"

He crouched to level at her and covered her hands with his. "I have no idea, I thought that maybe it was destiny... Also I have to go there a week or so in a couple of weeks to promote the book and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to meet your daughter."

"Charlie..."


	6. The longest day

_A ponytail looks a bit serious on her, still it fits her. That's weird the more Haya asks me to keep my distance from Emiko the more I miss her, I sort of can't take my eyes off her. I understand why she is jealous of her, she is a girl and I spend a lot of time with her._ Kioshi was staring at Emiko's back, trying to fight himself from breaking the rules his girlfriend had set. _She is beautiful..._ The Japanese boy had his chin resting on his left hand, his right one holding a pen. He suddenly shook his head, trying to shake the thought away with it. His pulse had suddenly changed rhythm, after a swift acceleration it nearly stopped. _What am I thinking? What was that? It's just Emiko...Emiko. Still I miss her a lot, of that I'm sure and all this jealousy is killing me._

She had that weird expression on her face, the same she already had when she started to wonder if Shinichi was her father. Kioshi had a weird feeling, almost a vision and things were about to get down. As soon as the lunch break bell rang Emiko rushed out which was totally unusual, Kioshi followed his girlfriend by rote but couldn't get the thought out of his mind. All his senses were telling him to go and look for his friend. When he saw Emiko passing by with a rather worried look on her face he gave up the inner conflict, he pulled up some toilet excuses and went after her. He almost caught up on her but at the last second he decided to keep his concern to himself, he merely kept an eye on her.

She was heading towards the office part of the school, looking constantly on her sides to check that no one was around, Kioshi even had to be careful to hide himself from her. Emiko entered the headmaster's office after checking if he was inside, fortunately he wasn't that was her chance, she started to look in his computer archive. Using a small piece of paper where she had prepared the right characters just to make sure she wouldn't forget them. Kioshi was hiding behind the wall, he clearly saw Emiko searching for something in the headmaster's computer and he knew that whatever it was if she would get caught she might get kicked out of Teitan. 工藤 新一 she instantly found the right file but she needed time to copy it to her flash drive and it was way longer than in the last James Bond she watched. When she heard steps coming closer she nearly had a heart attack, then she heard someone shouting in Japanese, the slow walk became a run but away from her. What she didn't know was that Kioshi had yet again come to her rescue by shouting that there was a fight outside the school.

 _I found you, Shinichi Kudo!_

Emiko spent her day twiddling the flash drive with her fingers, she couldn't think about anything else. The same went for Kioshi who spent the day thinking about the British girl, he felt his brain melt under the pressure. The teenage girl's obsession was only going to grow, the only thing she wanted and cared about was to go back home and read what the school archive had to offer on Shinichi. She had no time to waste lingering in Teitan, she wanted to go back to the agency as soon as she got her shoes from her locker. However at the exact second she closed the door she heard someone calling her name.

"Mouri-san!" Two girls perfectly synchronized girls shouted her name waving an arm, they were running to her dressed in sportswear clothes.

"Yes?" Emiko looked totally confused.

"Hi! Hey, my name is Azami and this is Chizu, I am in my last year here and we are both from the handball Teitan team. We have a few injured players and as the captain I wanted to ask you if you would like to join us."

"Wow, that's a bit unexpected" she quickly realized that her hesitation was nothing funny to them. "I mean yes sure, it sounds like fun!"

"So that's a yes?" asked Azami, which Chizu completed with her own interrogation "Yes?"

"Yes!" _I wonder if it really is a smart move..._ The girls instantly grabbed both of her wrists and dragged her along. "Where are you taking me?"

"Trainingu!" said Chizu with her widest smile.

"We train twice a week and play games during the weekend" explained the captain to her new recruit. Azami made her sign a few papers, asked her for some information and got her a proper outfit. Finally she was introduced to the rest of the team, Emiko recognized the girls who was training during her detention. _I guess I am a handball player now._ After a passing the ball around, the team warmed up a bit further and ran around the handball pitch. The girls were then divided into 2 different teams which competed against each other, during the opposition Emiko had been able to prove everyone that taking her into the team was a wise decision.

"You did good Mouri-san, I'll get you an official shirt for our next game" congratulated the captain with a pat on the back of her new team mate.

Emiko waved good bye at her, sped up her walk, on her way back home she took a second to send a text to Kogoro who was supposed to be already back at the agency. She had not lost track on her objective as she held her precious flash drive tight in her hand, she got rid of her bag and switched on her laptop. _This is the moment I've been waiting for the whole day._ Emiko inserted the flash drive, opened the file and started to read. She actually read the main man's name several times, it took her a while to move on to the others information such as his date of birth. Those generals information were nothing interesting but it was more data collected. She went through his report cards, they were really good if not brilliant, but slowly the mention absent appeared and slowly covered the whole report. _That's weird, something happened but what?_

"Are you sure you want to do that?"

Charlie kissed her cheek and whispered "Ran I'm ready if you are, the last thing I want is to force you."

"Believe me, you're not forcing me at all. It's just that if you enter my daughter's life... I won't ever let you go. Then if I press the call button there's no going back."

Hearing that Charlie's heart melted and he couldn't hold himself and kissed her passionately, after a few seconds he was pushed away and received a pat on his shoulder. A confused Charlie was facing a laughing Ran.

"What's so funny?"

"You messed my makeup and now you... you... you" Ran couldn't stop laughing at her boyfriend's newly acquired lipstick.

Emiko was about to read Shinichi Kudo's medical emergency file, but a ringtone suddenly started to play. It was Ran calling her daughter, Emiko fell off her chair, to her it seemed that god wanted to prevent her from discovering more. She climbed back on her seat and after quickly restyling her hair she accepted the call. The image took a second to load as both webcams needed time to start, Ran appeared in an elegant dark blue dress which looked absolutely perfect on her. Both her hands and legs were joined as if stuck together. She somehow instantly looked nervous to her daughter, was it because of her smile or maybe was it her short breath?

"Daijobu desu ka?"

"Daijobu desu... Erm Mom why are you talking to me in Japanese?"

"I was checking your progress and I have to say that it wasn't too bad."

"Well I guess I am just trying to survive here..."

"I am sure you're doing fine."

"Yeah I got enrolled in a handball team, just like that. It wasn't weird at all..."

"If I remember right, you're quite good at throwing a ball to people... Also break windows."

"That's not my fault if I am a single child and I had no one to throw the ball at!" Emiko complained. Ran giggled nervously, the awkward silence following was ponderous, thus her only hope was that her daughter would ask her questions or notice something. Moreover Charlie was right in front of her eyes waiting for her.

"Mom, are you alright? You look really nervous, is that because of me?"

"No, not because of you" Ran smiled shyly at Charlie and reached for his hand. At first Emiko could only see the man's hand, her mother quickly made room for him, still holding Ran's hand Charlie sat beside her putting Ran's hand on his knee.

 _What the hell is going on today? What? What?_

"Mom, w-would you introduce us please?"

"Yes sure... Emiko this is Charlie my... he is my boyfriend and Charlie as you already know this is my daughter Emiko." Ran closed her eyes and pit her head down waiting.

"I'm very pleased to meet you Emiko" the 34 years old took an extra effort to shave for their first meeting, he was wearing a simple pair of jeans and a white shirt.

"So you're the man behind the jacket?"

"What is she talking about Ran?" Charlie played dumb which caused Ran's face to become redder than ever, the gag had gone just a bit too far the only thing she could do was to pinch him. "Alright I am the jacketman!"

"Okay, looks like he is the funny type... How long have you been together?"

Ran looked blankly at her daughter's image on the screen, she was totally unable to speak. Charlie saw his beloved's distress, he first tried to comfort her holding her hands. However the man quickly realized this wouldn't be enough and resigned himself to talk to the teenage girl he heard so much about.

"It's been 2 years now" he smiled at the camera.

"Wow!" Emiko was stunned, she didn't suspect anything and took a second to think before bouncing back. "Have you been hiding in her closet the whole time?"

"No, I've never hid myself in a closet. But yes, you're right, we've been hiding..."

"...I needed time" Ran finally spoke carefully avoiding to look at the screen.

"That's fine Mom"

"Actually Emiko... I wanted to ask you something. I am going to Japan in a couple of weeks on a business trip and I wanted to know if you would like to meet at some point."

How could Emiko refuse such an offer, besides that she was really curious about who really was the jacketman. Deep inside she was happy for them but still she was upset and couldn't let it show. "Sounds good to me but I have to go now... things to do" with this said she clapped the laptop off without second thoughts.

*CLAP*

The couple was surprised and slightly jumped when the call abruptly stopped and exchanged looks. "I guess it went quite fine" concluded Charlie.

"Quite..."

Emiko fell on her bed in exhaustion, she needed time to recover from the unexpected Skype conversation. The teenage girl had always hoped that her mother would bring her a father, the fact that they would have genes in common or not did not matter. Nonetheless the timing was wrong, it was a bit late maybe. In her haste she closed the laptop with the flash drive in, although she really wanted to open the laptop again to pick the investigation where she left it she couldn't bring herself to do so. Emiko was too scared that her mother would call her again and ask her further explanations. _"Sounds good to me" Pffff What's got into me? I don't really want to do that right now, but I guess I have no choice._

It took her a long walk in Beika, a lot of music to calm her nerves. Still she didn't pronounce a word during the whole dinner making both Eri and Kogoro worry. The teenager was in her little own world, her eyes directed towards her room's door where all the evidence she had in her possession were. _Shinichi, Shinichi, Shinichi..._ It was the only thing on her mind, Charlie and Ran were long gone. As soon as she emptied her plate, she left the table without a word.

Slamming the door behind her she ran to her laptop to read Shinichi Kudo's medical emergency file, when her phone rang she answered by rote and didn't speak.

"Mouri-san? Mouri-san?" Kioshi called not even sure if Emiko had picked the phone up.

"Ah Yoshida-kun... You're allowed to talk to me again?" Emiko was like hypnotised by the screenlight and wouldn't stop reading during the conversation.

 _Allergy : None_

"I am free to do whatever I want but I didn't call to talk about me."

"Oh really? What is this about then?" _Persons to contact in emergency case:_

 _Kudo Yusaku_

"What have you found?"

"What are you talking about Yoshida-kun, I don't understand..."

 _Kudo Yukiko_

"I've seen you in the headmaster's office, you nearly got caught you know? I hope it was worth it, so tell me have you found anything interesting?"

"I haven't found anything..."

 _Address : Beika Town District 2 Block 21_

 _I've found an address, his address! Well hopefully it is still the right one, there's a high chance that he moved away. I need to find out..._

"I have to go, I'll see you tomorrow Kioshi!"

"Hey! Wait a minute!"

Emiko was already gone by the time Kioshi intended to say something, she put a dark jacket with a hoodie on and her favourite pair of Converse. Carefully she opened her room's door just enough to peek, everything was quiet Kogoro and Eri were already gone in dreamland. Also carefully she closed the apartment door behind her. The teenager used her mobile phone to direct herself in the unknown streets of Beika, fortunately enough the streets were empty and it was unlikely that she would meet someone she knew. Her hearts was pounding, blood rushing through her veins, she had to run until she was totally unable to breath and needed to rest her back against a wall. At least she was able to calm herself as the distance decreased, she wanted her eyes to memorize the full street. The British girl took yet her longest character lesson as she read all the front door names until the right one caught her eyes.

 _Kudo..._ There she was standing in front of the mansion in the dark cold night, only the wind and cat to keep her company. Despite the darkness Emiko could clearly see how big the house was, she found it to be truly splendid although it was a bit old. The facade looked a bit outdated, the garden had gone wild a while ago making the girl wonder if anyone was still living in the mansion. She took a few steps towards the huge iron gate, she let her hands slide on the cold metal to only tight it around the bar. She tried to push it, it was closed which annoyed her to the point she gave it a kick. Entering someone's garden through an opened gate was a thing, but climbing on a wall to break in someone's place was something completely different. Emiko let out a sigh her face in between two bars, she was exhausted.


	7. Reliving memories

That day Emiko strode the hallway for the nearly hundredth time, she was yawning more than ever due her obvious exhaustion. Somehow excitement was holding her back from sleeping while standing, however surprise totally woke her up when she made her first step inside the classroom. Kioshi's buddy was sitting at her seat, his own stuff on the table. The British girl wanted to avoid causing a scene, she decided to quietly accept the switch. She didn't think much about the situation until Haya's threatening look hit her. She gulped and sat at her new spot that is to say just in front of Kioshi.

"So that's what you meant when you said that you were free to do whatever you want?"

"HAHA you're funny" Kioshi ironically applauded her.

"Did she break up with you because she thinks there's... Something going on between us?" She asked slightly whispering in the end.

"Errrm sort of..." He carefully avoided looking at her in the eyes.

"What kind of explanations is that?"

"Well she, asked me to choose..."

"Wait wait wait... You didn't choose me over her did you?"

"I-I-I" he stuttered looking down while trying to hide his blush.

"Yoshida-san! Mouri-san! You will have time to date after the class."

The teacher's little lecture caused Emiko to join Kioshi in his embarrassment. She couldn't look behind herself anymore and search for the end of his sentence in his eyes. The teenage girl really wanted to know the end of it though, even forgetting about her night adventure. _Could it be that he? No, no, no there's just no way he would._ Emiko tried her best to shake off the idea. On the other hand Kioshi was praying she would never talk about that again, also his stuff were in his bag a good while before the bell would release all the students and turn Teitan into a zoo.

When the bell rang the end of the morning's class Kioshi was already on the run trying to escape his friend. She wanted to run after him through the school, however Kioshi knew the place better than her and he managed to avoid her the whole day but if there was a moment he wouldn't be able to escape it was the way back home. Emiko secretly took her shoes from her locker and hid it in her bag, when the final bell rang she skipped the locker and headed directly to the exit. The teenage girl waited for his bike and blocked the way with her arms fully outstretched which made the boy nearly fall off.

"What was that for?"

"Seemed like the best way to have a talk with you. Are you going to run away from me forever like that?"

"Of course not... That wasn't what I meant to do."

"Why did you choose me over her?" An uncontrolled blush appeared on her face which more than anything else annoyed her. _What the hell is going on in that body? Stop it, already!_

"Alright I... I chose to not choose her, I mean you see, I had no reason to stay with her, I mean what kind of girlfriend would be that jealous and also, also I guess that my feelings for her faded away. I don't know what happened but Haya and I it wasn't working anymore. And, and..."

Emiko was listening to each words carefully although she nearly got lost through his confusion and the amount of detail.

I, I mean you, I mean we..." As his face was covered in a dark shade of red he looked away, he hesitated for what seemed to be an eternity. "We're friends, aren't we? What kind of person separates friends?" After a second of relief, he nervously checked the British girl's reaction praying that she would buy this version.

The girl thought a second before bursting into a laugh and hitting the back of the Japanese boy's head "that's right my friend!"

"Stop hitting me already, this is getting on my nerves!"

"Okay, okay I'm stopping it!" She surrendered her hands raised up as if he pointed a gun at her.

They continued to argue on their way back to the agency, it seemed like any conversation was turning into a friendly fight. When they made it to the agency Kioshi put his bike against the wall getting himself ready to help her with their usual homework session. Nonetheless to his surprise Emiko stopped him with a palm gesture.

"I'm sorry I can't, there is somewhere I have to go to..." Her eyes directed towards the ground, she was visibly hiding something. However Kioshi didn't react he left her without asking any more questions. After dropping her stuff home, Emiko ran out, her phone's GPS app wasn't any longer necessary to find her way as she had memorized it already. Those streets were now her streets, she somehow felt like she belonged there. This huge old abandoned mansion was like the only witness of Shinichi Kudo's existence.

As days passed she felt like she had let her friend down at the worst time possible, he looked pretty sad and he was indeed down. Emiko couldn't let it be, leave him like that he said they were friends she just had to do something. That's when she came up with a brilliant idea. _I hope it will work..._

"There you go!" She hit him with her left fist and lent him a piece of paper.

"What is that?"

"Take it before I change my mind!"

"Wait, what? Are you inviting me to Tropical land, just like that?"

"Yes sure, why not?" Suddenly she noticed that the whole 17-B was watching her and started to whisper "Listen I really want to go there, I need to at least once and there's no one else I want to go with. Plus we both need some air, don't we?" Even after that little speech Kioshi was stoic, he had no idea of what to say and started to wonder if he was day dreaming. But Emiko joined her hands and begged him with a puppy look. How could he refuse that? He gave her an "Ok" sighed and that was it.

Early doors on Saturday they took the bus to the amusement park together, on one hand Emiko was all happy and smiling but on the other hand Kioshi was all silent and expressionless. He had no idea of how to consider the invitation. Was Emiko trying to show him some kind interest or was it just for the friendship sake? First things first, Emiko took a map and took a cautious look. _Where is it? Where is it?_ In a split second she started to run and Kioshi who was still in his thoughts was a few seconds late behind her. The British quickly made it to the spot, she was standing at the exact same place as her supposed parents. She just had to immortalize it, thus she put her mobile phone in Kioshi's hand.

"Would you take a picture, please?" Not waiting for answer she took a few steps backwards to adjust the distance and bent down imitating the picture pose.

"What are you doing?"

"Press the damn button!"

With this done she walked towards him and spoke before taking her precious phone back. "I'm sorry I just had to, I wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible so we could enjoy the rest of the day."

"That's fine" Kioshi scratched the back of his head, lending her the phone.

"But before we continue I have a condition..."

"Shouldn't I be the one who does..?"

"Let me call you Kioshi, I can keep up with the kun-thing but it's really hard for me to call you by your last name. It makes me feel like you're a total stranger. Please, please please, PLEASE!"

This time Kioshi couldn't hide his blush but complied, an embarrassed "Hai" and an enthousiastic "Vamos" later they lined up in various queue, amusement after amusement all the stress was gone. What's better than a roller coaster to evacuate negatives emotions? They laughed, teamed up to win various goodies, Emiko had the same legendary luck as her mother and Kioshi's heart nearly stopped beating a few times as the distance between their bodies radically decreased. In the end it was a perfect day, they left just before sunset and took the bus back together. The young man gained some confidence, he was ready to speak his mind out.

"Emiko, there's a question I need to ask you." He waited for her nod approbation before going on "Well, I want you to tell me honestly. What's wrong with me?" He asked with a quite annoyed expression.

"Huh? What?"

"You said that Haya had ABSOLUTELY nothing to worry about, you said it as if I wasn't even a man. So now tell me what's wrong!"

"Did I say that?" She nervously giggled scratching the back of her head. "Well... I-I have no idea I might have said that without thinking, you're totally alright."

"Wait I'm alright?"

She shook both of her hands "I mean you look great, great man, you're a great man Kioshi..." _Gosh what are you trying to make me say Kioshi?_

Almost every day Emiko would find a way to pass by the Kudo mansion, to just take a quick look or to observe it longer and this day was no exception. She suddenly got up, called for the bus stop. "I have to go" the bus stopped and she basically jumped out. "See you on Monday" she waved goodbye and Kioshi could only watch her run away, at least he didn't have to worry anymore about walking her back to the agency, still he was wondering where she was running to. Observing this mansion was like playing a live 7 mistakes game, Emiko would notice any tiny change. She passed in front of the mansion once, twice, a few times as discreetly as possible. However this day was different, Emiko heart stopped for a split second when the front door slowly opened, inch by inch she saw someone going out of the house. A woman got out of the house and locked it. She was rather young, 25 or less by the look of things, her height was average and her hair was long and wavy. A beautiful one to say the least, she was wearing a long taupe coat, an umbrella in her left hand. She stopped her walk when she spotted the British girl standing in front of the gate.

Time also seemed to stop as the mysterious woman approached her and talked to her in Japanese. Emiko was looking down, trying to think about something to say or something to do. All she could manage was a "I-I-I", the woman looked somehow a bit surprised.

"You don't speak Japanese, right?"

"No..." The woman's English was surprisingly good, Emiko had no idea of what to do, that person was obviously not Shinichi and she wanted to see him and no else. Carefully she tried to question her "Excuse me... Do you live here?"

"Actually no, I just water the plants... Are you looking for something?"

"Do you know where I could find the owners?"

"I am afraid you won't find them here, they only come occasionally."

"I see thanks anyway!" Emiko said as she ran away as fast as a lightning bolt.

 _Who is that woman? Where are the owners? Where is Shinichi?... What can I do now? Where to search?_ So many questions were flowing in her mind, she was totally lost.

 _Who is that girl? What was she doing there? Could she be Ran's daughter? Gosh I should have asked her name..._ Ai walked the few kilometres separating herself from her house, the only thought in her mind was Emiko's face and its features. Her place was quite close from the Kudo's mansion, it didn't take her more than 5 minutes to walk back, she opened the gate and instantly spotted her husband's sports car parked in front of the garage. She started to look for him inside the house after taking off her coat and her shoes, it didn't take long to look for him, as usual he was reading a book on his favourite seat. For a short second she smiled at the scene but quickly came back to her confusion. The two married about a year ago but they had lived together for a couple of years, usually Ai would have asked him about his day and told him about hers, but this day was definitely different. She sat on the couch and stayed silent which caught his attention. He slowly put his book back and sat next to her, Ai who was still in her thoughts didn't even noticed when he waved his hand in front of her eyes.

"Are you okay?" He asked her in Japanese

Ai violently shook her head to wake herself up "Yeah yeah it's just... I am a bit sick but I'm okay, you don't have to worry." She hoped he would buy this half lie since she indeed had felt sick but this wasn't what concerned her, Ai wasn't going to complain for something so insignificant.

"Are you sure? I can call the doctor if you want."

"It's fine..." she rested her head on his shoulder and pretend to sleep which was what seemed the least suspicious if he doesn't notice her fake sleep.

Emiko didn't know but Ai had been observing her every day since they met. Every day after school or after her handball training Emiko came to look at the house for an hour or two. She hoped to see the mysterious woman again not knowing she was just a little behind her. A week had passed since Ai met the teenage girl, she had memorized the girl's features and could even see them with her eyes closed, she was now sure of it... _It's Ran Mouri's daughter._ However Ai was surprised when Emiko didn't come as she'd usually do but the woman thought she might had something else to do. She was wrong, that night Emiko decided to wait till it got dark to go to the Kudo's mansion.

She had waited for everyone to be asleep, she was wearing the same outfit as the very first time to stay discreet. As usually when she made it to the building she observed it for a little, but she quickly took a few steps back and made a run to jump over the wall. A second later she was in the yard a flashlight in her right hand. _Just what am I doing?_ She walked directly to the door and desperately tried to open it. _Who would leave the door opened like that? Plan B..._ She looked around her, tried under the carpet and under the flower pot but found nothing. Out of anger she kicked a rock which made a weird sound. _Plastic... It sounded like plastic._ Emiko examined the plastic rock, found a crack the key was inside. _Can't believe this old trick worked..._

She carefully stepped in, nothing on the right, nothing on the left, Emiko progressed through the living room and the kitchen. After wandering around for a few minutes she arrived in a huge room filled with bookshelves. There were thousands of books, only classics and mostly crime novels. _Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, Henning Mankell, Edgar Allan Poe, Edmund Crispin, Yusaku Kudo... Wait what?_

Suddenly she felt a man's hand on her shoulder, in a split second she clenched her hands into fists and took support on her left foot. She used all her strength and speed to attack the man who still managed to dodge it. However he didn't strike back or defend himself, no instead he hugged her in a tight embrace leaving Emiko motionless.

"Shhhhhh" He whispered in her ear "It's just me". They remained in the same position for what seemed to be an eternity, Emiko unable to move her heart racing and Kioshi not really willing to move.

"Ki-Kioshi... You scared me, I nearly had a heart attack. What are you doing here?" She pushed him away

"I could ask you the same! So that's what you meant when you said that you found nothing?"

"That's funny... Would you now whisper please!"

"Okay, okay..." He whispered with his widest smile.

The two teenagers progressed in the dark with Emiko's flashlight, when they got to the stairs Emiko silently questioned him on whether to go take a look or not. He nodded and bent down as if saying "Ladies first" only to get another pad on the back of his head. After a few seconds of hesitation she proceeded and climbed on the stairs ahead of him. She opened the first door to discover a small room which was the toilet, a face palm later she opened the second door to discover the bathroom, a pretty cool one to be fair with a huge bath. _It makes sense to have those rooms close to one another, that's not interesting, let's see what do we have next._ Emiko closed the door and instantly her heart jumped out of her chest at the sight of a man in front of her. From what she could she could distinguish he was a foot taller than her and wore glasses. She froze, her body was paralyzed, thankfully enough Kioshi pulled her with him in his run.

"Hayaku!"


	8. Crossed path

Kioshi led the way for once, he smashed the front door open and jumped its stairs followed by Emiko who was a few meters behind. She nearly crashed on a wall 10 times in her escape as she had thrown her flashlight back at their pursuer's face hoping to increase the distance between them. Kioshi slowed down to let her join him.

"Emiko, the jump is higher from this side of the wall, I will give you a leg up." He sped up to get first on the wall and positioned himself. Following the boy's silent instructions Emiko didn't slow down, she kept the same speed, they exchanged a look full of faith and he helped her to make the jump. She took support on Kioshi who lifted her up, Emiko made it just about on top of the wall. The boy took a quick worried look behind himself to see the man running towards him.

"Grab my hand!"

Kioshi jumped as high as he could without any impulse run, Emiko grabbed his hand with both of hers and pulled him up using all her weight. The British girl succeeded at last but fell down causing Kioshi's fall. They fell together, Emiko fell on her back and Kioshi on Emiko. She closed her eyes in shock and didn't realize that a boy was lying on top of her. At first she held him against her in some sort of reflex, Kioshi also had his eyes closed as he shut them while he fell in anticipation of the pain. He froze there slowly realizing that the pain surprisingly never came. A mysterious kind of synchronisation made them their eyes at the exact same time.

Kioshi's eyes widened, his heart was racing, he was out of breath with the fear paralyzing him. "C- Can you stand up?" He asked as he kneeled in front of her.

"I think I'm fine..." Emiko faced some difficulties to get up but she still ignored Kioshi who offered his hand to help her. Breaking another awkward silence the teenage girl proposed to run since the man following them was unlikely going to stop for a wall, however Kioshi twisted his ankle. Thankfully enough they were already far on the way to both of their places.

The young man was in pain, he used the walls to take support with his arm until Emiko unexpectedly put herself in between the wall and him. He stood on one foot as he looked at her dumbstruck, she grabbed his wrist and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

"I guess I'll walk you home" said Emiko in a half annoyed half embarrassed tone.

What a day it had been, Ai was exhausted more than she usually would be, she had her arms crossed over her chest, lying as if she was a stone statue when Conan entered the room. He walked slowly towards the nightshift, took off his glasses and placed it there.

"Are you sure that you're fine? You know I have my doubts." He said as he took off his shirt and sat on the edge of the bed. On her side of the bed Ai was stoic, thinking deeply she vaguely heard a sound.

"Huh?"

"I guess I've had my answer."

"Oh I'm fine, I mean I think I'm sick. I'll see the doctor tomorrow."

"Contagious?"

"I don't think so, it's been a week you would had already felt something."

After a sigh of relief, he lied in bed next to her, he crawled to get closer and caressed her face from behind. "I guess that I should turn the lights off." He sighed again as he did. The couple slept peacefully, however they didn't for a long time as the phone's ringtone broke the night silence.

"Wha-what is it? Kudo-san... A robber at your place?... WHAT? We're on our way, hold on! Conan get your..."

"What do you think I am doing?" Conan was already putting his clothes on, Ai watched him for a second. _Just how fast is he?_ Before she knew it they were both running in the streets, Conan ran ahead of her and smashed the gate opened, Ai simply followed his lead. Their first reflex was to check up on his parents.

"Kâsan! Are you okay?" Yukiko could only nod to her son's question. "Where is dad?"

"He went after them." She pointed the wall's direction.

Conan ran following that direction and jumped over the wall as if it was nothing while Ai and Yukiko stood there. The woman had her hands on her non-official mother-in-law's shoulders, she used her hold to guide her back inside the mansion. The living room was surrounded by the darkness, leaving a cold atmosphere, Ai lit up as many lights as possible and tried her best to reassure Yukiko. To be fair Yukiko wasn't upset or scared at all, more than anything she was wide awake from the surprise, she didn't get to see the intruders at all, she had simply been woken up by huge din as the teenagers and Yusaku ran through the house. Both women prepared tea to help everyone to calm down, though Ai insisted that Conan's mother should better rest she didn't manage to keep sit still, they were just about done when the men returned. The novel writer sat on the couch as if his body became too heavy to carry, finally his wife and the couple could get explanations about the night's actions. According to Yusaku Kudo two robbers broke in the house and he just about caught them before they managed to steal anything or hurt anyone. Ai and Conan were both silent, deeply thinking about the mysterious intrusion, about the persons who could have done that and their motive. Ai started to to think about the fact that the house had looked totally abandoned for a long while which was a great opportunity for criminals, then it hit her, she told someone that the owners were out of the way.

"Yusaku you should call the police!" said Yukiko in her most determined tone.

"I don't really want to have them searching around here you know..."

"It's fine I'll catch them myself, it will be a piece of cake. I won't let anyone threaten my family!" Conan had his right hand clenched into a tight fist as he said so.

Ai grabbed his wrist in an attempt to calm him. "Hold on everyone, nothing has been stolen, no one has been hurt or threatened. You're over reacting, it might just be some teens testing their courage in a haunted house just like the detectives boys did before. It's a simple case, if you can still call it so, even Mouri-san could handle it." She turned to Conan, the woman looked at him as if she needed a favour. "Besides that you already have a job and you don't have time to play the detective."

Conan was stunned by just how fast she pulled up the whole speech, he had no other choice but to agree. Thus Yusaku concluded that it was far time for all of them to get some sleep. On their way back home the couple was silent, both thinking, Ai quickly realized that there was a high chance that the girl she had seen was one of the intruders. Conan was only thinking about what his wife said, directly reproaching him to reconnect with his past detective life. Later on they lied in bed unable to sleep, not knowing that the other was thinking about the past.

"Are you sleeping Ai?" He whispered.

"No..." She sighed her answer.

"Ai, I'm sorry I didn't mean to start investigating, to become a detective again. It's all past, you don't have to worry about that."

"Alright but what if... What if the past comes back?" She turned in the bed mid-sentence to look in her husband's eyes. _You have no idea._

"What do you mean?"

 _You don't understand._

"The black organisation has been taken down years ago, there's nothing to fear from the past."

 _Shinichi you don't understand._ She looked away before confessing the true nature of her fear. "And what if Ran comes back?"

"Ran" the name felt like a slap on his face, before racing his heart nearly stopped, Conan was speechless.

"I don't..."

"Conan be honest with me please. Did Shinichi have sex with her?"

On his side of the bed Conan had no idea of how she got to that sort of question or neither of what to answer. It took him a gulp and a lot of courage to only say "once".

"What a nice use of my antidotes, really!" She took the sheets off her and got out of the bed slightly mumbling something. _Damn it, I knew it! If he finds out, if he finds out then... "_ You still love her don't you?"

The accusation was so violent, too violent, though Conan felt like denying would only make it worse. His silence pissed her off, the woman ran out slamming the door behind her.

"Ai! Wait! Where are you going?"

"Leave me alone!" Judging by the sound of her voice she was already halfway the stairs.

 _Breaking in my supposed grandparents' house the day before meeting my mother's boyfriend surely wasn't a good idea._ The teenage girl woke up at 5 am in order to prepare herself for the important meeting. _First impressions do count, after all he probably did the same._ It took her 2 hours in total to get her hair done, find an okay dress to wear and put on make-up. _Girls life is surely complicated._ Emiko had the good surprise to take the taxi since Kogoro was busy doing something else god knows where. In the end she made it just in time to the Tokyo Haneda airport. She had to face a well-known challenge finding a person she had never met before in a huge international airport, therefore she scanned the crowd for long minutes looking for an average height dark blond man. Thankfully he finally appeared, Charlie was wearing a white shirt with no tie and the first buttons were undone, he also had a pair of dark grey pants and what looked like an expensive sports watch. His American tourister was middle sized by the looks of things he was there for more or less than 5 days.

"Hey Emiko!" He hugged her as if they had known each other for years. "I am so glad I've found you I would have been lost without you. It's nice to meet you after such a long time."

"Yes it is." She said with an embarrassed smile..

"May we drop by my hotel and have a coffee before meeting your grandparents. I really have to change clothes and also I really need my caffeine."

"Sure!" _I didn't even know that you were supposed to meet them._

They caught a taxi pretty easily and the British made extra effort to impress him by giving the destination to the driver in her best Japanese. They talked about classic stuff such as culture shock or integration, Emiko was somehow totally out of herself and could only give short answers such as "Yes I do" or "Fine". Charlie changed into some red polo and both of them went to Charlie's hotel's bar to let Charlie have his shot of caffeine.

Emiko finally started to relax, making longer sentences, wearing a more natural smile and asked him the question she had always wanted to ask. "How have you met my mother?"

"Oh... Well I met her at some gastronomy exhibition where I presented my new collection of chocolates. Your mother was also there presenting her latest dish, we tasted each other's creations and it was really good to say the least. At first your mother was only talking about cuisine, slowly we became more than gastronomy colleagues, I made my way to her heart." Charlie cleared his throat in order to distract her from the slight blush on his face.

 _How poetic is that? Still I have to admit he looks pretty good and he isn't hard to talk to. I guess mom doesn't look bad herself anyway._

Charlie insisted on meeting her grandparents during his first day in Japan since he wasn't sure of the amount of free time he would get there. As a result they jumped straight in another cab as soon as he gulped what was left of his cup. The girl did her best to show him around on the way to the Mouri agency. When they made it to the right place Emiko felt really nervous about this, unlike her Charlie seemed totally relaxed about meeting his girlfriend's parents without her in a foreign country. _He is a bit unusual I guess._ They climbed the stairs together but she asked to wait behind the door in order to let her tell them who he was and such. Nonetheless when she entered the apartment it was totally empty and she came to the conclusion that Eri and Kogoro might both be down at the agency.

"They are not here, I guess they are downstairs in Kogoro's study"

Again Charlie had to to wait for her behind the door, her grandparents were indeed at the agency but she didn't expect them to be working. Actually it seemed like Kogoro had a client, a couple who looked to be as old as them.

"I am with Charlie so if you..." She stopped when the man who was wearing glasses turned to look at her, Emiko instantly recognized the man who ran after her and Kioshi in the darkness. She felt like thunder just struck her, her first reflex was to run away hoping this short moment wasn't enough for him to recognize her. She ran passed Charlie who tried to run after her but it was too late she was gone.


	9. Always on the run

**Hello a quick AN (cause I hate AN)! Sorry I kept you waiting for a pretty long time, I had everything in mind and it was actually complicated to write it down. Also I have a summer job but no excuses there... Your reviews helped me a lot and gave me that little kick of motivation, I don't know yet when I'll upload the next one but in the meantime I hope you'll enjoy that one.**

"It was in the middle of the night, I woke up because I simply needed to go to the toilet and I heard steps. I got out of my room, I saw their flashlight, they were checking each room. I guess they were looking for something in particular."

"How many were there?" asked Kogoro.

"Two, I'd say a boy and a girl."

"That's an important detail."

"I tried to catch them but the girl threw her flashlight at me and they ran away." Yusaku lent the flashlight to Kogoro while continuing his story. "Of course I tried to go after them but they were faster than me."

"Did they take anything important or precious?" Eri joined the conversation.

"Nothing, I interrupted them before they had the chance."

Kogoro stood up and put his hands in his pockets 'I see... Well it seems to be a pretty simple case, I'll solve it in no time, in the memory of good old times."

Suddenly Emiko entered the agency "I am with Charlie so if you...", everybody stopped in the room to look at the teenage girl, she froze in a blink looking at Yusaku who couldn't take his eyes off her feeling totally hypnotised. After a few seconds she turned her back on them and got herself ready to escape but Kogoro grabbed her wrist.

"Shibata! Emiko what are you doing?" He tried to hold her back but failed, she ran out passing a blond guy who after a few seconds ran after her.

A moment of silent later, Yukiko coughed before breaking the silence "Wow your granddaughter looks just like Ran" pointed out the woman with an enthusiastic tone.

"She sure does..." Agreed Eri in a sigh

"We need to go after her."

"Don't worry anata, I'm pretty sure that I know where she's going. We will catch her up later." She then turned to her guests "Would you like some tea?"

Yusaku looked like he was about to accept the invitation but at the last second he felt his wife's hand grabbing his wrist. "No thank you, actually we have to go. Make sure to keep us informed!" Yukiko winked as she said this while dragging her husband out and all the way to the car. She didn't say a word until Yusaku sat on the driver's seat, she suddenly asked "Did you see her?"

Yusaku took a few seconds before answering "Mouri-san's granddaughter... Yes I did "he sighed.

"How old do you think she is?"

"Like... I don't know maybe 15 or something."

"Should we tell him?"

Yusaku looked away and sighed. "We'd better not... Not yet."

Emiko continued to run as fast as possible, she couldn't think about directions, the only thing she knew was that she should better stay away from the agency for a little while. Charlie tried to follow the teenager in vain since she was rather fast and knew the place much better than he would ever do. He lost track on her in the middle of the crowd, the timing was definitely wrong, Emiko wasn't really up for it anyway. She finally stopped completely out of breath, the girl rested her hands on her knees trying to catch some air. The British girl looked up around her and noticed that she had almost reached Haido. _Just where to go... To think that I've ran away so suddenly the Kudos might think that I lost my mind and my grandparents are probably worried sick. What did I get myself into?_ She held her head with both hands. _What a mess!_

Kogoro was perambulating in the house, fuming, grunting and mumbling. He was so disturbed that Eri started to worry for him more than for her dear Emiko. They were interrupted by someone who knocked at the door, Eri was pretty hopefull that it was Emiko who was done with her little walk, disappointment was all over her face as she discovered a foreigner behind the door. Charlie looked pretty embarrassed as he walked in, he lent his hand to the former lawyer and intended to introduce himself "My name is Charlie and I'm..." but he was cut by an annoyed Kogoro who seemed to have lost any sense of English and asked in Japanese who the hell was the British man. Charlie did his best to ignore it and lent his hand towards him "I'm Ran's boyfriend". At these words Kogoro turned pale for a second before pushing the man off his way, still in Japanese he said "I am going to get her" he waved goodbye with his back turned at them. Just like that he left them alone making the situation even weirder as a results Eri couldn't help but sigh.

She started to walk again towards the residential district, from small traditional houses to low apartment complexes she wandered around for about an hour until it finally hit her. All these places looked familiar which was logical since she had already been there, indeed she walked there the night just before. _Kioshi!_ Her steps got faster and her stride got longer as she was nearly running yet again. She put her hand on the wall just under the characters plate and decoded Kioshi's first name at once which was quite an achievement. She looked up at the house, it was a nice modern two floors house with a nice traditional touch.

Emiko stood in front of the doorbell, she hesitated for a few minutes till her fingers pushed the button before her eyes. She instantly got an answer from what sounded like an angry young Japanese woman, on the other hand the British girl gabbled some excuses while scratching the back of her head. Weirdly enough right after she introduced herself she heard the door unlocking automatically, she walked in a bit unsure of what happened. A tornado girl grabbed her wrist, dragged her in the living room where some tea had just been prepared. The Japanese girl looked to be around 20, she looked really excited to see Emiko who started to wonder what this girl knew about her.

"Errrm sorry, I wanted to see Kioshi. Is he there?" she asked pointing at the stairs

"Forget about him, tell me about you instead I want to know everything!" The girl was really enthusiastic as she lent her a cup of tea with a wide smile.

Emiko froze there, embarrassed, she had no other choice than taking the cup. Still the teenager had no idea of what to answer and no idea of how to act either. The only sound she could produce was a "Errrm". Then the sound of a door getting opened and closed or rather smashed was heard from upstairs, quickly followed by heavy steps.

"Oy Ayumi! What are you making a fuss about? Geez I am trying to focus here!" shouted the very much annoyed Kioshi. When he spotted the girl sitting next to his sister he almost tripped on one of the stairs. "What is she doing here?" He questioned a bit panicked while pointing at Emiko.

Although she didn't understand everything he said she could tell that her timing was off again. "Gomene" she looked away while scratching the back of her head. Before she could turn her head back she suddenly felt her sleeve being pulled. Kioshi was indeed offering the escape she had wished for, he took her to his room away from his too talkative sister.

The Japanese boy directly threw himself on his bed, resting his head on his crossed arms, he watched his friend going in his room. Emiko wandered in the room for a few minutes exactly like Kioshi did the first time he came over to help her with the homework. The walls were navy blue, the decoration was minimalist that was if a back view in action poster of the Tokyo spirits number 10 could be considered as decoration. A simple desk, a chair, a bed, a few book shelves full of mangas and that was it. _How boyish is that..._ She turned back to him and noticed that his eyes had been on her for a while, she nearly forgot what she wanted to tell him in the first place.

"What were you so busy with before I got here?"

"Huh?"

"Didn't you just said that you were trying to focus or something?"

"Your Japanese is truly improving. Well I was trying to prepare for the math exam..."

"Damn it! Damn it!" She swore as she repeatedly hit herself though it wasn't exactly what concerned her the most.

Emiko pushed his knees slightly towards the wall and he made room for her on the bed. "Kioshi about yesterday..." Emiko started not looking at her friend, on the other end of the bed Kioshi sat up straight quietly waiting for her to continue. She was a bit lost in her thoughts, the words were hard to find, she put her right hand to her forehead and sighed while passing it in her hair. _Damn it..._

The boy sat closer and after hesitating a while he put his hand on her shoulder stroking it gently which she didn't really notice at first. "What's going on?" he asked swiftly.

"The man from yesterday, it was my grandfather, I mean it's the father of Shinichi and... He hired my grandfather, Kogoro Mouri to find who broke in his house."

At this moment Kioshi turned pale as he realized how far they were into trouble, the second after that his heart raced as she huddled against his chest, out of instinct he responded holding her tightly in that position. "My life is such a mess."

"You'll be alright Emiko and besides that I'm here" He kissed the top of her head without even realizing it. _Oups..._

Emiko instantly broke the embrace, her eyes were still red from the tears that dropped, the girl tried to dry them with her hands. "Kioshi, there's something I don't understand... Why were you following me last night?" She looked up at him directly in his eyes.

"Well I-I was kind of worried..." Started Kioshi a bit intimidated

She interrupted him "Ok following your friend at night is a thing but breaking in a house that's completely different. Why did you do that?"

He grabbed her hand "It's because I care... I care about you Emiko." As if they had switched places Emiko was the intimidated one, as Kioshi moved his hand to her cheek she felt herself paralyzed. Slowly he bent down and tilted his head moving closer than ever.

"Hey where are you going? I've never said you could go in!" Ayumi's voice came from downstairs, right after it a couple of heavy steps in the stairs were heard. Kogoro entered the boy's room in a split second and stopped on the doorstep with the knob still in his hand. "Give it more distance young people!" The teenagers jumped off the bed and stood like stone statues both looking at their feet. Kogoro grabbed his granddaughter wrist and took her away sending death glares to Kioshi. In a blink the British girl was taken away from her friend's arms to her grandfather's car, Kioshi could only watch them go.

Once they arrived at the agency, Emiko was surprised to see that Kogoro wasn't taking her to his study to give her the lecture of a lifetime, no instead they sat at a table in the Café Poirot and ordered coffee. The detective tried to look at her in the eyes but she would always find some other place to look at. "Emiko if you think that we will not have this conversation just because you are not looking then you are wrong." She complied so he could go on "Charlie is up at the agency I don't really want him to hear it and that's why I brought you here. I know that it was you and this boy who broke in the Kudos mansion, also I know what you were looking for. I beg you Emiko stop looking for Shinichi Kudo, you will not find him there and you will not find him anywhere else. He is dead."

Emiko's heart stopped in shock. _Did he just said that my father was dead?_ "I don't understand... What happened?"

"I don't know..." He sighed, earning some time to think. "When your mother left I did not know that she was pregnant, I just thought that something had happen between Ran and Shinichi making her leave. I wanted him to bring her back, I searched months and I never found him."

"No it can't be true, there's no way it can be true, no way! You're a detective, you should have proof right?" Emiko felt a mix of pain and anger taking over her body.

"It wasn't me it was the police... They found a huge amount of his blood in a drug hideout along with his burned belongings. The forensics said no one could have survived such a blood loss. I assume that he stuck his nose into the wrong person's business. I am sorry Emiko..." He put his hand over her fist trying to ease her. "But whether or not he is your father I don't know."

 _The Mouri detective agency, it hasn't changed much..._ Conan was walking in the street of his childhood and decided to pass by the agency. Lately the thought of her had come back, regrets torturing him, he couldn't remember when these thoughts entered his mind. Was it before Ai mentioned her name? Anyway he was standing on the opposite sidewalk, looking at the building. _Ai is right... What if she comes back? What would I do? What would that change?_ He took off his legendary glasses to clean it. _If I were Shinichi things would be different, right?_ He was interrupted in his thought by a couple of kids who wanted to take a picture with him, he gently put his glasses in jacket pocket knowing that most people knows his non glasses face and posed. _Always smile for the camera._ Before leaving the kids thanked him and said perfectly synchronized "Do your best!" he watched them go with a grin on his face. _Doing my best, I just hope that's enough._ Conan hadn't shaved for a few days which made him look just a bit older than what he officially was, also his hair had grown longer and he was even more in shape than in his before life which was the consequences of his new occupation. The former detective checked his phone but Ai still had not answered any of his texts, he didn't even notice the furious Emiko rushing through the people to get in the agency.

The girl ran in the stairs and directly headed to her room not giving a chance to Eri or Charlie to see her. She smashed, closed, locked and blocked the door with a chair. _I'm staying here!_ Her face was totally red and wet from the tears, anger and extreme sadness were blending in her heart, she would have wanted to kick something and break it to tiny pieces. However she also felt empty, the girl instead let herself fall on the bed and cried all her tears and she ended up falling asleep there exhausted.


	10. The red thread

**Hey guys! It's been an awful long time since I haven't uploaded here, sorry about that. I just started uni a few weeks ago, anyway I'm looking to finish this fiction in one or two chaps. I really need your feedback on this one, what are your predictions? Let me know and enjoy this chapter.**

A week had passed and Conan was still alone when he woke up. He had parked his car, changed and walked the long hallway shaking dozen of hands without even looking at the person they belonged to. He kneeled down, tied his shoelaces and walked onto the pitch. There were only a few players already on the training facility along with the coach and his assistants, Conan saluted them silently and grabbed a ball. Conan started to juggle while waiting for the others.

Juggling had always helped him to think and clear his mind as the ball was bouncing on his feet. _Choices..._ That's what he made when he joined the Tokyo spirits academy a while after Ran's departure. It was the choice of a different life, a more peaceful one and much easier one. Sometimes he thought that he was wasting his intelligence but it was the choice of a different person, the choice of remaining or rather becoming Conan. Of course at times he dreamed of what his life as Shinichi could have been but he would always find a way to shake these thoughts off. That's also the main reason why Conan chose to become the professional football player that Shinichi could have been in another life, this life.

"Alright everybody, today we are going to practice dead balls. Edogawa, Burns, Muriqui on the freekicks. The other field players on the corners and the goalkeepers on the penalty shootout. Go go go!"

The different groups separated and started their sessions, both Burns and Muriqui went for either of the top corners which is proven to be very effective. As for Conan he went for the bottom right of the goal, the ball just brushed against the post and ended up in the back of the net, a shot much more annoying for the man in goal than any top corners try. When Conan was day dreaming like he usually does off the ball he noticed with the corner of his eyes Hirayama who had been injured for a long while.

The Australian forward took Conan out of his thoughts "He went to the physiotherapist every day, I think she did a good job on him. I am pretty sure you agree" he finished with a wink.

"How funny of you!" Again it was his turn to step up and take the free kick. He took a few steps back, breathed, slowly he started his run and accelerated till he took his power step. As he stroke the ball it flew higher, the trajectory was totally different and the ball died on the crossbar. It was surely a nice attempt but it was an unusual miss from the Japanese midfielder, everybody turned to see Conan lying down, he was holding his thigh in pain. Two staff members, scared to lose a key player immediately helped him to the treatment room.

His head down, Conan was hiding a large smile. His planhad worked perfectly as he was now standing in front of the speechless Tokyo spirits physiotherapist. Ai was indeed facing her husband for a very much unexpected reunion, Ai became the new club's physiotherapist right after she graduated. Of course this didn't happen without Conan's help, still she gladly accepted the job offer in order to build on their new lives together.

"Co-C-Conan! What are you doing here?"

He closed the door behind him before explaining "Well I thought that pretending to be inured was the best way to have a talk with you."

"Conan, you're wasting your time here because I am not going to talk to you, I have nothing to say."

"Come on Ai, it's been a week and all I had from you was a text saying "stop calling me I'm fine" and I really doubt that you are actually fine."

Ai sighed and turned her back to him before answering "Listen, I just need time on my own..."

"I don't understand... You come up with some weird questions, then got angry with me and left me. What did I do? Just tell me what's on your mind, tell me whatever. We're partners, aren't we?"

"I just need time on my own and after all we're just partners..." _Do you miss me Conan?_

"What was that? The thought you just had, tell me." He made a few steps to reach for her hand but she brushed him off.

"Please, just go now." Conan had insisted long enough, he proceeded as asked and took his leave.

A week had passed since Emiko's chaotic day. Charlie had gone back to the UK without spending much time with her, Emiko was barely eating and had gone nearly mute. Eri, Kogoro, Kioshi, they had all tried hundreds of times to make her say a word, explain what happened to her smile and shinning eyes. Nothing had worked, that was it, it took her some time but she got homesick and was only wishing for an escape. Emiko was tired, the night before was one of too many sleepless nights, she let her head fall on her school desk and it wouldn't really matter if anyone noticed. She didn't care much of what her classmates would think of her, not anymore but still she knew that he was watching her.

Kioshi felt powerless, however he never gave up, the Japanese boy had a few more cards up his sleeve. The fact that Emiko wouldn't cry on his shoulder wasn't going to stop him, it was fine. That day after school he didn't walk his friend home, Emiko shrugged and pretended that it didn't matter as he ran away from her. He headed straight to the gymnasium looking for the handball captain. "Inaba-senpai!" He called Azami as she was studying and juggling with a ball at the same time. The ball fell on her head as she turned around to face him "Ouch! Hey, aren't you Emiko's boyfriend? What do you want?"

"Uuh no I'm not..." He denied pretty embarrassed thinking back of last week's event. "Anyway I need your help, it's about Emiko..."

"Charlie told me that you didn't get to spend much time together." Ran's tone was sweet and caring.

"Hmm hmm" Emiko had headed straight to her room hoping to get some rest, however as soon as she stepped in it she heard the Skype ringtone.

Ran instantly stopped the stream of the things she wanted to say "Is everything okay?"

Emiko looked up at her mother's image, she could have told her the truth. What she had been doing in Japan, what she had found, Shinichi's death. She couldn't do it to her, not yet and not through a Skype call. Emiko's answer was a lost glare to her mother.

Was she homesick? Did she miss her? Ran had just no idea, she could only note that her daughter had lost all her enthusiasm. Also she knew that asking more questions was useless, there was no confession to get of Emiko, Ran just changed subject going for something totally different. "What are you going to do for Christmas?"

The zombie Emiko had become seemed to live up a bit, at least she was interested. "Is there something special that you recommend?"

"Well as far as I remember Christmas in Japan..." While Ran was scratching her head looking for memories, Kogoro opened the door screaming Emiko's name. If it had been her mother doing so she would have probably shout right back at her, however it was just her grandfather and she went for a simple "What?"

"There are girls for you downstairs" He said pointing his back with his thumb.

"I guess it's time for me to go then..." Ran was set ready to end the call when Kogoro interrupted her.

"Mate Ran!" He begged his daughter before turning back to his granddaughter whispered "They are waiting for you..." As she left he took her place, Emiko wished she could have stayed and listened to their conversation. Thinking about it she realized that she would have needed better Japanese skills to do so. She went down the stairs and met both Azami and Chizu. Unlike Chizu the first girl was damn serious, the handball club captain was indeed on duty and threw a blue shirt at her.

Azami pointed her finger towards Emiko and said in Japanese "Don't you dare missing a training ever again, okay?"

Emiko hesitated a bit, she didn't understand much of the sentence but she just knew that she had to agree and nodded. The handball team's duet left quietly, Chizu waving with a bright smile while being dragged away by her partner. Once they were out of her sight, she unfolded the shirt, discovering a nice Teitan high school badge but it was only once she looked that she really understood what it was. An authentic handball shirt, she couldn't help but read out loud "Mouri number 7", her face suddenly lit up and the teenage girl rushed back inside. She wanted to show it to her mother, Emiko sprinted through the entire house but at the moment she reached for the door Kogoro casually got out of her room.

"Ran left to work" He held her shoulder while giving her a sorry smile.

"That's too bad..." She took a deep breath, it was time to forget about the past and forgive the lies. It was time to move on, Emiko suddenly hugged her grandfather tightly. She wanted to say that she was sorry, she wanted to explain her behaviour but in the end she backed off, the hug was just enough.

Kioshi's plan had worked perfectly, his friend was fired up, trying harder at each training and she started to smile again which was a total relief. However everything wasn't perfect in his little world, someone invaded his living space, some friend of Ayumi had been freeloading in her room. Indeed it was Ai who came to the conclusion that living in a hotel was far too expensive, an air mattress later she had moved in Ayumi's room. The very first days the sleepover was fun but Ayumi quickly got annoyed by the situation especially because she didn't quite understand what happened between her friends and tried her best to solve their problem.

"Ok I give up. What am I supposed to do to get you back together?" Ai just sighed at the question "Please, tell me, come one, please, please!"

"There's nothing to be fixed..." She whispered nonchalantly.

"What did you just say?"

"I said nothing Ayumi really... Besides that you wouldn't understand."

"You know what? This is it, I have had enough. Ai we grew up together and yet you don't consider me as an adult. This is pissing me off for real, ok you're married but I know as much as you about love! Stop treating me like a kid already!" Tears started to fall from her pretty face.

Ai's heart ached, this wasn't what she wanted at all and besides Ayumi wasn't completely wrong. She took her friend in her arms whispering how sorry she was. "Actually Ayumi I would need some advice and I thought you could help me." Ayumi gladly offered her help letting the young woman start her explanation. " Well it's a kind of complicated but let's do this... Ok there's a friend of mine she somehow found out that her boyfriend had a baby with his previous girlfriend. The thing is... The thing is that he doesn't know it himself and my friend is totally lost. Do you think she should tell him?"

Ayumi answered right away "Tell him, she definitely has to tell him. It wasn't that complicated actually." Without a word Ai grabbed her coat and got ready to leave. "Where are you going Ai?"

"I am simply going to tell her" Ai finished with a wink.

The woman went straight out and jumped on her bike. She headed to the Mouri detective agency, she spent countless hours there, possibly if you add them all up months. Memories slapped her back on the way, everything that happened there, Ran and Conan relationship. _Did she ever know who he really was besides her doubts? Would it surprise her? Does she know that Shinichi is said to be dead?_ Ai shook her daydream off as she realized that she had ridden nearly all the way in automatic mode. Having an accident out of distraction wasn't really part of the plan. When she finally got there, Ai hid her bike behind a wall, she observed from afar for some time.

As the rain started to pour she could only watch the water drop off her hood, Ai had nothing else to do anyway. However time seemed to have slowed down, minutes quickly turned to hours. It wasn't the woman's first stakeout, she had the patience on her side and just stuck her face deep in her coat and waited for it. She had nearly drowned under the rain when her target girl finally came out, Emiko was only wearing her blue Teitan handball shirt and sheltered under her grandfather's umbrella. They both walked in a bus tailed by a very discreet Ai who seemed to be well at ease in that sort of exercise. She watched them get off the bus very closely, she imitated them using the back exit and stood near the bus station for a while.

Kogoro and his granddaughter made their way in the rain to the high school gymnasium, Emiko took the sports bag off him and rushed to the changing room leaving Kogoro rather amused. While she was preparing Kogoro took place in the bleachers, as for Ai she tried her best to dry herself before also taking a seat. Kioshi was obviously there standing in as a ball boy, he wouldn't have missed that for a billion of coins. Soon enough the players started to warm up, passes, runs, along with a few shots which was surely a nice program. Despite her hard work at the training, Emiko was still a newcomer in the team and she started on the bench, it wasn't that bad this way she had some extra time to study their strategy.

Ai took a deep breath as Emiko started to run on the sideline, the game was already twenty minutes along when Emiko came on. Without any second thoughts Ai typed the numbers she knew by heart and pressed the call button.

"Moshi moshi" Conan nearly answered right away surprising the caller herself.

"... Join me at the Teitan gymnasium, I won't be waiting for long so you'd better hurry." She hung up as soon as she had said the minimum information.

"Oy Mate!" _Jeez what's up with that woman?_ He let out a long tired sigh.

The game was really tight, the opposition was tougher than what the British girl expected and she crashed on the ground a few times. Each time she got back up again she was more determined than the previous time.

When Conan finally made it to the game the home team was 24-22 down with 7 minutes left on the clock. He had to look for his wife for a minute since she was almost invisible at this rate, he could thank the lord for the fact that the girl handball team wasn't too popular thus so the audience was quite limited. He sat next to Ai his mind full with questions.

"What's the meaning of all this?" He asked confused and continued. "I don't understand why did you bring me here. I'm actually lost here."

"Your hand." She only said this and seeing his confusion Ai took it herself. She placed something on his palm.

Conan opened his palm slowly discovering the shiny metal ring or rather Ai's wedding ring. He was speechless, his heartbeat was fast, Conan had been caught off guard.

"It's fine Conan." She covered his hand with hers and gave him a kiss on the cheek. With this done she left her seat and started to walk away.

"Why?" He asked trying to block the way.

"Just watch the game closely and you'll know."

She left just like that leaving him dumbstruck, Conan was still lucid enough to actually do what Ai said. Thus the famous Japanese football player sat on some crappy bleachers to watch a high school girls handball game. The time left was down to 4 minutes and the team was still one goal down despite being the better side.

Chizu who was standing in goal made a crucial block which was a true lifeline, the ball bounced towards Azami who powered through the defence, however they caught her up quite fast and her finishing wasn't the best. She decided to give Emiko a chance to shine.

"Mouri!" She made a high blind pass to Emiko.

Mouri, the name felt like a slap on his face, he followed the ball with the eyes as it reached her. The time seemed to go in slow motion, Conan had more than enough time necessary to read the name on her shirt. He watched her jump, catch and smash the ball right in between the keepers legs.

24 all, the teams were levelled.

Emiko took a second to celebrate her goal with a few dancing steps on her way back to the Teitan side of the pitch. She looked just like he remembered, just like her mother. Conan nearly had a heart attack as he quickly understood that he was contemplating his own daughter, Ran and Shinichi's daughter.


	11. The masked man

**Hey guys! I uploaded the chapter as soon as possible I just couldn't wait any longer myself. Okay, my bad, my prognostic on the length of the fiction. Therefore I won't risk it anymore, it will last a little bit longer than what I said since a few majors stuff are yet to happen. Also I wanted to thank you all for the amazing support, this surely make it more enjoyable for me to write. Hope you'll like this chap too and I'll see you for the next one.**

It was already late in the night when Conan made it back home, he had followed Emiko the whole afternoon. Although his walk was heavy he was still trying to be silent, Ai's shoes and coat were in the hallway and she was probably sleeping by this time. He knew that he wouldn't be able to sleep, he sat in the dark and started to clean his glasses. However once he had dried and cleaned them he didn't put them back on, instead he looked at them.

 _What an irony, by wearing these for so long I actually hurt my eyes and started to need these._ He smiled faintly.

As he got close to the sofa he thought about crashing on it for a second but instead he went for the mini bar. Conan served himself a whiskey, it wasn't a habit at all, it wasn't really recommended either as a professional sportsman but he just thought it fitted the circumstances.

When he was about to empty his glass a noise stopped him "Tsk tsk tsk..." Ai was half awake and only wore a long jumper, she took the bottle and the glass away. After a slight hesitation she drank what Conan had served causing an awful wince on her face. "See there was nothing good in that glass." Ai sat next to her future ex-husband in silence.

After an everlasting while Conan asked "How long have you known?"

"Hmm I think it's been a few months now..."

"Okay..." Conan was in his famous Sherlock thinking position, shyly starting to ask the flow of questions that was popping up in his mind.

However Ai took him out of his thoughts "Her name is Emiko Mouri, she is 16, she is British and actually my bet would be on London. Also she knows who her father is, I don't think Ran told her... And she was the one who broke in your parents' house." She put her hand on his shoulder trying to comfort him for a bit "I'm sorry Conan, I should not have restrained all this information from you... I think I needed time to accept the situation, even myself... You know it's weird, I sort of knew this would end like that."

"It's a lot for just one day in a man's life: a daughter and a divorce." He laid down on the couch his feet slightly resting on Ai. "Ai, by the way, why did you give the ring back?"

"Well you know, it took some time to realize it but this girl grew up without a father and I grew up without my parents. Even if she's luckier than I was, I think she deserves to have a father. I don't want to get myself in the way of a family... Also I wanted to prevent you from having to face such a dilemma, I admire your loyalty but I don't want you to make that sacrifice for me."

"Wow... That's... Actually I had never realized how unfair our relationship was, I never meant to..."

She cut him before he had the chance to excuse himself it was better this way. "It's fine Conan. We were not unhappy, weren't we?"

"Yes, we did fine." He smiled to her before letting his head fall back. Ai pulled his socks off as his feet were on her lap and started to massage them gently. "What are you doing?"

"Shshsh... You know I'm a physiotherapist, I know the basics of massage." She went on and slowly Conan drifted to sleep, he finally looked appeased. Proud of herself, Ai escaped the couch and also joined Morpheus.

However he found some sleep, Conan somehow managed to think about what was coming. He didn't know yet what he should tell Ran when he would eventually meet her but something was sure he needed to get closer to his daughter. Whatever reason would do he just had to approach her. _But then what? Become friends and suddenly spill everything on her... No, no, no._ He scratched the back of his head hundreds of times, till some hair fell off. Despite living through a teenager's life twice, Conan had to accept the fact that he only grew older and was unsure of how he should act around a 16 years old Emiko.

In the meantime his daughter had struggled with achiness to prepare for a brand new day. "I'd kill for my good old muesli, goooooooooosh" Emiko started her usual morning complain as she was moving her rice around with her spoon.

"I can eat it for you if you don't want it." Kioshi who had slept over on the sofa was already fully awake and ready to tease his friend.

"Don't even think about eating my food." She kicked his leg under the table with a bright smile on the face.

Once the pain was gone Kioshi and Emiko started to discuss on what they should do once they were done. Eri had been watching them from the corner of her eyes while pretending to read an upside down Agatha Christie, she was quite surprised when the door bell rang. She threw the book on the couch and went downstairs to check. The former lawyer was quite shocked to find Conan standing in front of her. After a quick conversation she politely invited him in the apartment.

Conan sighed nervously as he made that last step in, it was probably the hardest thing he had ever done in his life, still he was really good at wearing a jovial mask. He gave a bouquet to his host and as Eri was gone to take care of it he directly walked towards the teenagers.

He cautiously chose to speak Japanese as he wasn't supposed to know that Emiko wasn't Japanese. "Hey I was hoping that you guys wouldn't be done with breakfast, I brought croissants." He lent the paper bag towards them but none of the teenagers moved.

Kioshi looked like he was about to explode but was trying to resist. His mouth left opened as if he was going to say something and he pointed a finger towards Conan. Just next to him, Emiko didn't seem to care much about the intrusion. She just turned to her friend and casually asked "Did the man say croissant?"

"Yes I did bring croissants." Conan gave a smile to Emiko who just snatched the bag off him.

"That's not muesli but that will do." She started to eat and finally noticed Kioshi who was still pointing at Conan. "What's up with you?"

"That's... That's Conan Edogawa!"

"So what?" She acted distant as if the man wasn't standing in front of her.

"Remember the football poster on my wall?"

"Oh you have a poster of me on your wall! That's weird Kioshi... Your sister never asked me to sign it." Conan was thinking out loud a finger on his mouth.

"Wait wait wait! You know my name? And how would you know my sister?"

"I see, you don't remember me. Well I came a few times to your place but you were just a kid, Ayumi and I were at the same schools throughout the years." Conan stopped and thought about the five years old Kioshi he had met and how it would have been to see Emiko instead. Kioshi was thinking about his poster which could have been signed with a bit of help from Ayumi.

Emiko finished her croissant before paying attention to the stranger. "If you're on Kioshi's wall, what's your business here?"

"Hmmm I was planning on paying a visit to Oji-san but he isn't here, that's unfortunate..." He wanted to talk to her so much, he didn't know what he was supposed to actually say as he wasn't supposed to know her at all. Therefore he had to start simple "Kioshi introduced me brilliantly but I still don't know your name."

"Oh that's right... I'm Emiko Mouri, pleased to meet you!" She lent him a friendly hand.

Conan was obviously more than happy to shake hands with her, he took a second to look at her in the eyes. "You look just like your mother" he said it, maybe it wasn't the best timing but he did.

Emiko pulled her hand away and tilted her head like a little puppy. "How do you know my mother?" She finally asked as she sat back and crossed her arms.

"Well I lived or "free loaded" here for a while, she took good care of me but I am sure you could easily guess that." After a few seconds he felt uncomfortable and changed subjects "What did you guys planned anyway?"

"I don't know maybe chill out or something" said Emiko looking at Kioshi for some approbation, as a response he just shrugged.

"What about a tour? I could show you the inside of the stadium." He agitated his car keys in front of the teenager.

Emiko slightly shrugged and took a quick look at her friend's reaction, his eyes were shining, he was totally up for it. "Let me change" she sighed.

Emiko and Kioshi both sat on a side of the backseat, the seats were more comfortable than enough, the car wasn't too luxurious but still really expensive. Once everybody had fasten their seatbelt, Conan adjusted the rear-view mirror as he usually does before he starts driving, but this time when he took a quick look at it he could see his daughter. The moment went in slow motion, even though Emiko wasn't excited at all about the tour, she looked really happy for her friend and was teasing him about his new fan boy attitude. _They look quite cute, I just hope they'll have a better ending. May I avoid driving her towards trouble... Quit the negatives thought already, damn Shinichi think straight!_

Off he drove through the capital, Conan had turned on the music in an attempt to shut up the voices in his head. The stadium was just outside the city, slightly in the suburbs it didn't take too long to get there, fair enough time to start a friendly fight on the backseat. As the car made its way in the parking's entrance the guard stepped up but quickly nodded at the star player and let him in.

"Are you excited guys?"

Kioshi didn't even hear him as he was already taking loads of pictures, Emiko looked at Conan and then took a look around the underground parking before answering "It feels like backstage... Why are you taking so much pictures Kioshi? Stop it already!"

Emiko took the smartphone off him and started to run around, Conan observed the show rather amused. _What happened to the –kun?_ Conan showed the showers, the lockers, they walked down the tunnel and entered the pitch. "This is my garden!" he said with his arms fully stretched. The Brit got the phone out of her pocket, took a 360 degree video of herself and threw the phone back at his owner.

"Okay I have something better for you, follow me!" Conan started to run towards the stairs, followed by his surprised guests, theyreached a backdoor which led to a narrow scale, Conan grabbed a high bar and started to climb right away. Emiko reached the scale first but stopped, Kioshi bumped into her in full speed.

"Ouch! What the hell are you doing?" Kioshi was holding his head as he nearly knocked himself out.

Emiko blushed and looked down "I'd rather let you go first, I'm wearing a skirt for god sake!"

"Oh, alright..." He was more than embarrassed and quietly went first. Conan helped them both up, they walked carefully on the roof holding to a guard-rail, the sight was outstanding, although they were not that high they could still see nearly the whole of Tokyo.

"Kio-Kioshi, don't go too far away, please" Emiko couldn't move anymore, her legs were shaking. She closed her eyes and reached for his arms. "I think I'm a bit scared, haaaa."

The young man breathed in and breathed out, he did his best to ignore the fact that she was touching him. As for the guide, he tried to avoid looking at them, give the teenagers as much space and privacy as possible, he had no idea of how he was supposed to act anyway. Slowly Emiko started to relax, she opened her eyes and enjoyed the beauty of Tokyo, she even decided that it was time for a selfie.

"Alright! We're not really allowed to stay here so we should better go back down" Conan led the way, Kioshi was ready to follow him but Emiko grabbed his collar.

"What?" KIoshi asked totally lost.

"Think harder mate, going down a scale is the opposite of climbing it so I have to go first!"

"Huh?"

"Otherwise you'd, you'd... Know what? I just go first get out of my way. Baka!" She slightly pushed him and went down the scale.

Conan then insisted on taking them to the club store and bought them two Edogawa named kits along with two seats for the next cup game. After checking his watch, Conan decided that it was far time to drive Emiko and Kioshi back home. Since he had been to Ayumi's place countless of times it wasn't too hard to find the way. The backseats partners were surprisingly quiet on the way back, whereas Kioshi was going through his pictures, Emiko seemed to be looking outside. Nevertheless she wasn't, instead she was discreetly watching the driver. During the tour she didn't take a second to do it, it was as if she had just noticed that someone drove them here.

 _An actual professional player... Just why did he do that? Either he has nothing to do or he is looking for something..._ She shook her head. _Oh come on, don't over think Emiko!_ She gave a little kick to the seat in front of her earning a doubtfully look from her right side. Before they knew it, they were at the Yoshida's house. Kioshi left the car and waved goodbye leaving them alone. Conan was about to start the car when Emiko stopped him.

"Wait!" She got out of the car and opened the front passenger door. She sat besides the driver, tapped on the car plastic "Let's go!"

They spent the first half of the way silent, from time to time they looked at the other and pretend to look somewhere else as soon as the other noticed. He wouldn't have got much more opportunities to get to know her if he didn't speak to her on the way and he just knew it.

"So hmm, do you like Japan so far?" He asked kindly but Emiko just shrugged. "How long have you been going out with Yoshida-san?"

She smiled and laughed a bit "It's not like that... I am not looking for that."

"I see... What are you looking for then? Have you found it already?"

She sighed and took a second to think. Why would she tell that sort of things to a stranger? Why not? After all, she was so far from home, it didn't matter much. "Not really... In some way I just wanted to find myself, I also hoped that I could meet my father but he's dead." She sighed again and giggled a few seconds later "You know what's funny, I have no idea of what I would have told him."

"You gave up quite easily... I guess you're talking about Shinichi Kudo."

Emiko nearly had a heart attack "How do you know?"

Conan did his best to sound unaffected and just focused on the facts. "A dead person, who may be your father, he is a perfect match... Anyway it's not an impressive guess, anyone who knew your mother back then might have guessed too."

"If I got it right, everyone knew but me... It pisses me off, gosh!" She punched the dashboard to evacuate the frustration "I need to stop kicking, hitting things and people really. Sorry about that."

"You're very young Emiko, you shouldn't give up like that. Moreover, they never found a body and from what I remember the file is empty. There's still hope".

During the rest of the way they didn't say a word, nor looked at each other, Emiko was just lost in her thoughts as if on another planet. The man parked across the street in front of the Mouri detective agency, Emiko had unfastened her seatbelt and was about to exit the car when Conan lent her his card. "In case you need some help, if you keep on with the investigation... Feel free to call me, I know I am just a football player but I am alright."

Emiko silently took the card, climbed the agency stairs and headed straight to her room. Eri just had enough time to ask her how the tour was and Emiko to answer "Fine". She jumped on the bed and buried her face deep into her pillows. She was a bit confused, she had given up the idea of looking for her father and didn't know if the total stranger she met was trustworthy or not. She rolled over the bed, opened the drawer and took the picture between her fingers. _What should I do?_

When Conan made it home, he took a shower in order to clear his mind. The man didn't know what move he should make next and the shower made no miracle. At least it eased him a bit, he went to his bedroom to grab a bunch of clothes and nearly bumped into Ai. At the last second, he managed to avoid her and prevented her from falling. Due to the little accident, Conan's hands were both on Ai, he immediately took them off and scratch the back of his head embarrassed.

"I was just moving my stuff from one bedroom to the other and you know... I wanted precisely to avoid that sort of situation." Ai kneeled down and tried to put everything back in the plastic basket she had been using.

"At least we have more than enough rooms for us two in this house" Conan sat on the bed behind Ai.

"Well it's not quite from the use of it we had originally planned to have. That will do for now but I have to find myself a place to live soon." She grabbed the basket and walked out. "Oh and by the way... How was your day? I assume that you found a way to approach her." She placed the basket on the floor and rested her back against the wall out of the room.

Conan popped his head outside the room "What are you doing?"

"Get change already!" she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Well it went fine I guess, I am not too good with teenagers. I can't just throw a ball at her to get a smile in return although it would have probably worked with the boy."

"What boy?"

"Oh hmm her future boyfriend, apparently he has posters of me."

Ai started to mock him "God she knows how to socialize! She might have gotten that from her mother."

"That's funny!"

"What's the plan now Kudo-kun?"

Conan walked out of the room as he had finally dressed "Honestly, I don't think you'll like it."

A few days later, Emiko came back from Teitan a bit later, she was alone as she had attended to her training. She directly rushed to the fridge to quench her thirst as any teenager would do from time to time, Kogoro who was a few meters away found it quite funny, but he still quickly returned to his checking the mails task.

"Looks like there's one for you!" The former detective lent her a big envelope.

The teenager took it and quietly walked to her room. She threw it on the bed, placed her bag next to the desk and shut the door. Emiko sat on the bed and quickly opened the mysterious envelope. Inside it seemed like there were only papers. Indeed it was a folding holder, Emiko started to shake as she fully took it out of the envelope and discovered her father's name on it.


	12. Nonsense

Emiko was sitting on the bed next to Kioshi, they both had a sheet of paper and used a copy book as a support. For once Emiko was the one who was intending to help Kioshi with the English grammar.

"I'm telling you it's an adverb not a damn preposition. Kioshi, are you listening?" However Kioshi did not answer, instead he was typing on his phone. "Don't tell me that you're googling that. Can't you just trust me?"

"Gomen Emiko..." The boy was ready to move on to the next sentence of their exercise but he soon realized that she was off it. Emiko didn't seem to be looking at the piece of paper in front of her nor at anything else. She didn't seem to be actually there and for a second she seemed to be crying. "Are you okay?"

Two days had passed and Emiko never opened the file. She didn't even actually know what it really was nor who could have sent it to her. Emiko didn't verbally answer the question, she just opened the drawer as she once did. Kioshi calmly walked to the girl's drawer, he took the tropical land picture and placed on the bed. He quickly found the file, he sat next to Emiko, he brought his fingers to the corner of the file.

When he was about to open it, Emiko got up and stood behind the window. "I don't want to see it, would you mind reading it for yourself?"

He turned the first page, there was a small portrait of Shinichi and generic information, nothing interesting. The few pages following were way better, it was a collection of reports from cases the high school detective had solved.

"Wow!" he exclaimed.

"What? Is it that horrible? Tell me please but don't show me." She kneeled down in front of him.

"Did you know that your father was a famous detective? Looks like he solved many complex cases for the police."

 _A detective..._

Kioshi went further in the pages, he felt a shiver going down his spine as he discovered the crime scene pictures. A simple empty room in an apartment, there was nothing besides a carpet and what seemed like white painted walls. Actually what truly stroke him was the blood that was covering everything, it made it hard to distinguish anything. He quickly went through the police conclusion to find pretty much nothing. "Well there's a crime scene picture, there's a lot of blood to say the least. But..."

"But what?" Emiko suddenly got up as if she was ready to bounce.

"There's not much... I mean there's no body, just blood that has been confirmed to be his and some DNA. But really that's it."

"That's weird... Give me that!" She took the papers off him. Emiko tried to decode it for a little while. With her friend's help she found out that a witness had apparently heard gun shots, someone else saw two persons running with knives in hand and apparently at the same time someone set fire to a trash can. "It doesn't make any sense, like not any sense at all."

"Emiko, we're just two high school students. What did you expect? We need help... What about your grandfather he is a detective right?"

"No I can't ask this to Kogoro... I'll find someone else, okay?" She checked her watch just to realize that it was almost diner time. "I think that we have to end the investigation for today." Kioshi agreed with a nod and grabbed his stuff. Emiko followed him to the door, she opened it and without saying a word brought the Japanese boy closer to her. In front of both of her grandparents she hugged Kioshi, both of them didn't quite understood what was going on and had dropped their jaw. Emiko actually didn't really think about giving him a hug, she somehow felt incomplete and the hug was enough to fill her need. She released him and closed the door behind him after he had recovered from the awkward moment.

Seeing how dumbstruck her grandparents looked, the girl just threw a "I'm British" on her way back to her room. The teenager was passing through that sort of moment when you want to do something but you don't feel like doing anything. There was just too many things on her mind and she obviously ended up on whatever social network. After a quick update on her friends and an eternity answering her messages Emiko came back to square one. That's when a name came up, Emiko searched "Edogawa Conan" on that very same website and through as many posts as she could. Something was fascinating and she somehow couldn't stop. However one thing did temporarily stop it and that was dinner.

The family enjoyed their oden quietly for most of it, until Emiko came back to it. "Who's Edogawa-san again? I didn't quite understand the first time."

"He lived here with your mother and Kogoro for a while when he was a kid." Eri went for the short explanation.

"A long while..." added the old man.

"Well that's weird... Why?" Emiko frowned.

The couple exchanged looks as if the other was the one who had an answer, they hummed trying to think about something but in the end they could only shrug.

The British girl tried to move on "He is quite different from what I'd expect a football player to be like... I don't know, dare I say it? He nearly seems too intelligent."

"I haven't talked to him much lately but I remember him as a very sharp kid. He sort of was your assistant, always helping you in your demonstration and really attentive." She turned to her husband.

"The brat, he was always getting in my way. Annoying... I don't remember asking his help."

The two continued to talk about Conan and drifted to old time glory. The stories were always the same and so was the winner who took it all. Emiko had drifted away on her own, she had made her mind and took a decision. Something was definitely off with Conan and she would use his proposition both to discover the truth about her father and to satisfy her curiosity.

Due to the logistic she had to wait almost a full day to transform her plan to an action. Emiko hadn't said much during the day, she looked rather absent even with Kioshi when they walked back home. She became more active all of sudden. "What do you think about Edogawa-san?"

"I guess you're not talking about the J-league... Well I don't know him much but he seems to be a nice guy."

"Do you think that you could trust him if you ever needed to?"

Kioshi stopped, the question was definitely weird but still interesting. He thought for a second before saying "He is a friend of my sister and I think he is a good guy. So yes..."

"Okay, fine..." Emiko brushed her bang back, placed the hanging shoulder strap on her shoulder. "Lend me your bike then." Indeed Emiko didn't wait for his permission she jumped right on it, adjusted her skirt and started her GPS. A bit surprised Kioshi made way for her and just watched her go. She biked passed the agency which to be fair was pretty close from the place where she lent her friend's bike to herself. The way to the address written on the business card from Conan was really familiar to her, she quickly recognized it as the way to the Kudos mansion. She slowed down as she passed in front of it just to take a look at it. The grass was cut to a week length, the flowers looked fine and the windows were opened. The Kudos were definitely there, for a split second she wondered if it would be more simple to just pay them a visit but she knew that she wasn't brave enough after what she had already done in the very same house.

The GPS signalled her soon that she had reached the destination. _Pretty close from the Kudos mansion. A nice coincidence I guess..._ Emiko jumped off the bike and called on the intercom only to hear a feminine voice asking who was calling. "It's Mouri-san, I..." she never managed to finish her sentence, the voice never answered either, the teenager just heard the sound of the gates unlocking. After she got rid of the bike, Emiko walked towards the entrance massive door. Before she even made it to the stairs, the door magically opened letting Ai face an rather unprepared Emiko.

The girl instantly recognized the woman who used to water the plants when the Kudos were abroad. It was a way stronger link than simple houses proximity, still it meant nothing. Ai knew exactly what this visit was the beginning of and it was just for her one more reason to run away from the house.

"So you're Mrs Edogawa, what a coincidence!"

Ai smirked "Ai will do, please. Conan is taking a shower right now, you can wait for him in the living." The woman continued, carefully not letting Emiko interfere nor taking a breath and put a coat on. "I am sorry, I was about to leave. So... Bye."

Left alone in an unknown house the girl really slowly headed to the living room as the house mistress had suggested. The decoration was minimalist giving even more space to the huge rooms. It was heavily inspirited by the Scandinavian style, the walls were painted in clear colours mostly white and wood was everywhere. However the decoration was minimalist, Emiko was still impressed by the lack of personal effects. She looked at the very few pictures on display on the chimney, actually there were only two pictures. One of them was a picture of the couple wearing kimono and it took her quite a while to realize that it was a wedding picture. A bit further on the left Emiko found what probably was a honeymoon picture, indeed it was a selfie of Ai and Conan somewhere in the southern American mountains dressed like real mountaineers.

The tour was already done much to Emiko's disappointment who was starting to like doing that sort of thing. She walked towards the sofa, but stopped on the way. Her eyes were caught by a thick book, she sat on the wooden seat and read the author's name "Higashino". She nearly read the back cover but at last she got lazy and placed the book back on the low table carefully avoiding pair of glasses. She put it on just like a kid and took a picture with her smartphone to check herself.

Conan run down the stairs as fast as a lightning bolt, checking every table. He thought out loud "Where the hell did I leave my..." There he was, glasses-less facing his own daughter who actually was wearing the glasses. Emiko jumped off the seat and said slightly stuttering "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to." She walked to him handing the glasses, he was pretty embarrassed to be seen without his disguise and yet he was thankful that the girl had never met his old self.

The man cleared his voice, wondered what he should say before finally asking "So... What brought you here?"

"Well you kind of gave your card." Emiko smiled proud of herself, she thought it was funny but Conan clearly didn't get it and didn't even laugh a bit. "More seriously, since you said you'd like to help I am curious to have your opinion on this." She took the file from her bag and lent it to him.

"What do we have here?" He pretended not to know the content when he was actually the one who sent her the letter, when he actually was Shinichi Kudo and when he actually faked his death. Still he took the time to read it after the report part which could just be summed up as "Shinichi Kudo was a famous detective." Conan closed the file after spending almost 40 minutes reading it in silence and looked at his daughter. "That's interesting to say the least but tell me first what did you think of it?"

The teenage girl got up and trying to sound rational she calmly said "In my opinion it's a bunch of nonsense. People running with knives in the street, gunshots, no body and now that I've seen the pictures I have to say that ketchup on the walls would have made more sense."

Conan stood up and without any sort of explanation pushed the sofa against the wall. He finally spoke as he did the same with the low table "Let's imagine that I'm the victim. What would happen if you shoot at me with a gun?"

Emiko played along and even pretended to hold a gun. "If I am not too bad with guns I could kill you with just one bullet."

The man rested his right hand on his chest "Okay, let's say you just did that I'd obvious be lying on the floor dead, but what would have happened with the blood projection. Also there would something missing, right?" It had been so long and it felt so good for him to finally take a moment to reason logically. But more than anything he was curious about the way his daughter would reason and tried his best to give her the space needed.

"However someone heard gunshots, I haven't read anything about a bullet nor gun powder. There wasn't any trace of a gun either."

"Also such blood projections are not coherent with amount of blood on the crime scene. Let's move on to the next hypothesis."

"Those people who were seen running with knives... It sounds more coherent, right?"

"Hmmm partially I guess... Did you know that to get much of the blood out of the body you need the heart to still be beating?"

"Then he would have been still alive."

"Exactly, it's called exsanguinations and it's not doable with a knife. Also what you can't know is that the supposed crime scene is in the middle of drug traffic a bit outside the city. Therefore the police are always somewhere near it and people are unlikely to run in the streets with knives in hand."

"Regardless the technique chosen the culprit would have had to spread the blood on the walls. What sort of person does that? It's useless!"

Conan shrugged "That's a good one." They had already danced around the living room in a ballet of deduction for two hours. When Ai came back from her promenade she was surprised to find them there, after she had taken off her shoes Ai tried to casually pass in the hall while showing her watch to Conan. 3 attempts later he had finally noticed that it was time to drive Emiko home.

"I'm sure you have what it takes to find the answers by yourself. It's already late I'll drive you back."

Emiko checked the time, even though it was late she was disappointed to stop there. However she could only agree. "Actually I came here with a bike and since it's not mine I don't really want to leave it here. "

"Then do you mind if I walk you back home?"

"Hmmm guess so..." _Always agree with Japanese people remember? It's kind of way slower than biking but never mind._

Emiko placed the file back in her bag and once they had their coat on they left the comfortable house.

"Let me have a guess. That's Yoshida-san's bike, right?"

"Yep, I loaned it to myself." And so they walked together, Conan on the left and Emiko on the right pushing her bike.

"I am not surprised."

"Did I tell you that I had already met your wife?"

"No, you didn't. I didn't tell you that we divorced either."

"Wait, really? It doesn't show I guess... She's still living with you?"

"Well I am not going to kick her out, that's her house too and there's enough room for her to avoid me for a full week. There are still a few papers to sign anyway."

"May I ask you why?"

"That's complicated..."

"Oh come on! Can't I have a bit more than that? I mean you're both good looking young married persons, what went wrong?"

"Okay okay. Let's say that I had someone else in mind."

"Oh... I forgot to ask you something about the Kudos. Do you know them? Because, the first time I met your wife, I mean your ex-wife she was watering the plants."

The question really embarrassed him, he would have indeed have preferred it if Ai had told him before. "Well, I... Hmm, we occasionally meet."

"Okay... Did you actually ever meet my father?"

"A few times yes. I don't remember much, you know I was quite young. What did Ran told you about your father?"

"She never said much. Whenever I asked her she would always brush me off. I quickly noticed that it hurt her to talk about it so I stopped asking. Very rarely, she'd talk about some nice memory with him but she never named him."

Conan stopped speaking for a minute, he already knew what she said but it was still really hard to hear it, especially from his own daughter. Still there was one more question that he just had to ask. "Did Ran ever..."

"Nope she never married and until quite recently she had never introduced me to any man."

"So, she has someone?"

"Apparently she does. You're being quite curious for a Japanese."

"I guess I could tell you exactly the same." They had finally made it to the Mouri detective agency, both of them had the chance to ask each other the questions floating in their minds. Somehow the conversation eased them a lot giving them a feeling of liberation. Conan pointed at the window "Do you like it there?"

"Oh you know it's not home but it's alright..."

The agency door slammed and the sound of high heels quickly going down the stairs was heard. Emiko who was the closest to the stairs was actually the only one who could see who it was. Everything happened in a blink, the teenager ran towards the stairs while the steps were getting closer. A split second later, Conan discovered that Ran had decided to pay a surprise visit to her daughter.

The mother tenderly held her daughter against her, the woman hadn't seen Emiko for nearly four months and simply couldn't let go off her.

"Mom, I am going to need to breathe some air soon you know."

Ran finally complied giving Emiko a slight pad on the shoulder. "Don't play the tough girl, sweetheart!"

"Mom!" Emiko had tried hard to look and sound mature in Japan but this was all gone at the moment she ran to her "mom".

Ran was a beautiful woman for sure, she was in her early thirties and had learnt throughout the years how to make a good impression. Light makeup was perfectly used to sublime her porcelain skin, only the radiant red lipstick was there to flash it up a little bit.

"But Mom when did you..."

"I arrived right when you were supposed to come back from the high school and thought I'd surprise you. But no, you didn't show up." Ran finally turned to the man standing a few meters away.

Conan unconsciously took a step or two back, his whole body wanted to run away when his mind was fascinated. He had had far enough time to look at her from the toes to the eyes. His heart almost stopped when she spoke. "Would that be Conan-kun?"


	13. Ethinylestradiol

Kioshi rested his back against the gymnasium wall, he was going through his texts using his special gloves. He had been waiting outside in the cold for a while, he had already read through all of his mails and messages. He ended up reading a second time the texts Emiko sent him last night, most of them were about her mother's return. To say that she had been going on and on about the topic the whole day wasn't an understatement.

A couple of minutes later the girl finally appeared, her hair wasn't dried yet and her face was still red from all the effort she had put into the training. Somehow Kioshi was fascinated by the scene, he was so captivated that when Emiko spoke he asked her to repeat.

"YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR SO LONG! I'M IMPRESSED!"

"Well don't go thinking that I've waited for you arms crossed like that. I trained too, I ran around the football facilities for about 30 minutes."

"Not bad, not bad. I have to say that I can't do it, I need to run after something or even someone. So you deserved some respect from me there." She bowed in front of him.

Once he managed to get rid of the smirk on his face, he said "Okay, okay I got it." They walked in silence towards the exit, however this wasn't an awkward silence it was a very comforting one. The teenagers just smiled to each other as Kioshi went to get his bike. "It makes me think... You stole my bike yesterday." Seeing that she was about to make an objection he corrected himself "Alright you lent it, whatever. You visited Edogawa-san, right?"

"Yes I did! Actually he gave me his card and offered me his help for the case."

"So it means that you know where he lives..." He grinned slightly.

"Kioshi, you look like a fan girl and that's scary."

"HaHa funny! Anyway did you guys found anything interesting?"

Instantly a fire started to burn in her eyes as she answered her friend's question. "Quite yes, let's say that he cleared the way for me. Now I can solve the mystery by myself."

"Oh I see... And you're not going to say a word to me, that's making me sad." He tried his best to look like a puppy in order to get something out of her.

"Honestly I'd love to but I can't. It's too risky, I still need evidence and I think that mom's return will be key... I promise that I'll make it up to you."

"I am taking notes you know. He said he'd get a ticket for your mother to tomorrow's game, right?" Seeing Emiko's nod Kioshi felt a little disappointed to not go alone with her but still couldn't really complain. They smiled to each other but the girl only gave a faint smile before letting her body rest against Kioshi. "You're more tired than what you thought." Emiko merely nodded, the Japanese boy jumped on his bike right away and asked with a fake snobbish accent "Shall I drop you off then? My horse is fresh and ready." He even pretended to give a little pad to the horse.

The British girl fought the giggle "What was that? Are you playing the charming prince?"

"Am I not charming?" The man gave his best cliché impression off the charming prince.

Emiko complied and sat on the luggage rack "I never answer trick questions."

She held on with both hands to the luggage rack but a bump on the road nearly caused her to slide off. The handball player proved great reflexes and held on to the first thing she found for her life's sake. Obviously as Kioshi was the only stable thing around, she wrapped her right arm around him. Even though it was a bit embarrassing for the teenagers, Kioshi was actually quite proud that a stupid joke had turned into a great plan. The two laughed a lot on the way, the time necessary had dropped down to a reasonable 5 minutes but it was enough time to zigzag to give the girl a better reason to hold on tight.

"Sir slow down your horse, we've arrived!"

Kioshi stopped the bike, continued to play his little comedy, bent down and kissed the princess her hand.

"Kioshi stop it"

Ran had been looking outside for about 10 minutes as she expected to see her daughter come back. She had a great view and contemplated the scene closely. "Mom... Who is the boy with Emiko?"

Eri was sitting behind Kogoro's desk and didn't bother to look "I assume that it's Kioshi-kun. Well he's a classmate, he comes here to help her with their homework."

Ran didn't turn to her mother and continued to talk her eyes stuck on her daughter "Are you sure that they only do that?"

"Of course they became friends." Eri slightly giggled at Ran's typical mother behaviour.

"And?"

"And nothing..."

Ran was biting on her nails and mumbled "For now..."

The teenagers had continued to chat in front of the agency, Kioshi got distracted a second and looked at the sky that's when he noticed Ran. "Wow! It wasn't an understatement saying that you look just like your mother."

Emiko instantly froze "Don't look at her! Kioshi just look at me, okay?" He nodded, she went on "She was looking at us, right?" Another nod "Then you'll have to forgive me."

"Fo-forgive?"

Fast as a lightning bolt Emiko wrapped her arms around Kioshi's waist and pulled him against her. _Sorry Kioshi..._ At first the boy did not move a finger but as Emiko's embrace became tighter he naturally returned her the favour.

"Damn it!" Ran swore in English out of habits, she turned and kicked the wall back.

Eri answered in English while reading her book "Not delivered with the instructions..."

"See you tomorrow at the game!" Emiko winked and ran up the stairs, she didn't stop at the agency office floor and directly headed to the apartment.

Kioshi stood in front of the agency stoic as a stone statue for a little while. _What was that? Just what..._ Considering his feelings for her, he should have been delighted by that mini event. He should have, but he clearly wasn't... The young man turned pale, he climbed on his bike and slowly went back home.

A moment later the table had turned, Ran went out and Emiko was the one watching. It was the 20th of December, the snow had melted because of the rain but still it was freezing. Ran was wearing a long black coat over her jumper, she was walking fast, it looked like she knew where she was going.

Her face was expressionless, Emiko could have worried but she just thought "will see". The teenager tried to do her homework but she was more troubled than what she'd expected. Reading a book or listening to music didn't work either. She just set a bunch of notes and books on the desk in order to pretend and waited.

An eternity later her mother came back, the same look was still on her face, Emiko gulped and prepared herself. _This might hurt..._ She sighed and sat on the bed. Her mother would open the door anytime, the girl closed her eyes and counted.

When Ran entered her former bedroom Emiko was sending texts to Kioshi, he didn't answer though. Ran walked towards the desk, she rolled the chair back and sat in front of her daughter. The silence was unbearable, it lasted way too long to both women's taste. Emiko had nothing to say but Ran who actually had something to tell her didn't know where to start. The weather, maybe?

"You know what?"

 _Really Mom?_ "No but I guess you're going to tell me."

"I realized something coming back here... Time passed, it's crazy, don't misunderstand the city didn't change that much actually. No it's just me, I feel like it was yesterday that this room was mine. Yet it wasn't yesterday, it was 16 years ago." Ran smiled sadly at the thought.

 _Okay, this is bad... But I'm ready, I knew it Mom._ Emiko sat up and straighten.

"Also, I can't act like you're a little girl anymore, you're practically a woman now."

"Okay..." _I know exactly where this is going._

Ran reached for her jeans back pocket and got a little round metallic box out of it. "Here you go" she lent the box to her daughter.

Emiko couldn't help but frown, she took the box and opened it. She had expected to have a mature talk with her mother but the surprise was total, she instantly closed it. "What the hell Mom?"

"Emiko..." Ran got up and tried to reach her daughter's hand.

The girl quickly backed off "It's disgusting Mom! I swear to god, I never thought about that." She looked truly shocked, indeed the girl had expected a talk about a possible first boyfriend but this was way too much.

"Believe me, those things happens faster than you know. I was your age when..."

In no time Emiko turned to fury mode "When what? When you made a terrible mistake! Is that what you were about to say?" She jumped off the bed and opened the drawer. She took the frame, hiding the picture she threw it down to her mother's feet. In the process the glass broke to pieces, Ran discovered the picture and nearly dropped her jaw. "Damn you!" she threw the pills box but this time she aimed at her mother's face.

Emiko ran out slamming the door in the process, it took a few seconds for Ran to recover from the attack and run after her. The 33 years old was still fit despite the lack of training, she was still fast but the teenager had managed to distance her. When Ran reached the agency floor, Emiko was nearly in the street. Ran cut through the office, she sprinted to the window, Eri who was still there just stood and watched the scene in slow motion. Ran opened the window, she screamed her daughter's name but the distance was increasing with each seconds and she wouldn't have stopped anyway.

"I've done it once I can do it twice." She placed her hands on the window sill and jumped out. There was about a 100 meters between them and it remained the same the whole time. Despite not being trained and despite having to run none of them would have given up. Emiko had her objective in mind and nothing would have made her slow down.

It was only when the girl reached her objective that Ran recognized her childhood streets. Emiko used her run to take a huge power step hang on to the top of the wall, the Kudos homestead wall. Ran's heart nearly stopped, she couldn't run any longer, she took what was left of air in her lungs and screamed "Emiko don't!" But it was too late, the girl was already in the yard and seeing that her mother had considerably slowed down she even walked to the door. Once she reached it, she tried to open it, it wasn't locked so she entered the mansion. The girl didn't really know what do once in, she just went for a loud "Tadaima!"

However no one rushed to see who the visitor was, at least not until Ran rang at the gate. When Yukiko went to the hall in order to open the gate she only noticed the intruder after she had pressed the button. Yukiko called her husband and made a step towards the girl that she assumed was her granddaughter. Emiko waited for her grandfather to join in the hall to introduce herself.

"We've met briefly, my name is Mouri Emiko! Pleased to meet you again." She shook both of their hands, the front opened... "And I believe you know my mother."

Ran directly took her daughter a few steps apart to reprimand her "You can't intrude the people's house like that. It's not..."

"No Mom! I've listened to you but now it's my turn to speak." She sighed and took her mother's left hand "I'm sorry Mom, I'm sorry I brought you here cause I had to tell you something. It's about Shinichi... He is... He."

The British girl never managed to finish her sentence but her mother got the message. Ran turned to Yukiko and Yusaku, she spoke in Japanese "This can't be true, Shinichi can't be dead." Tears had formed in her eyes but she didn't allow them to drop on her porcelain face. Yukiko pulled her to a tight hug, the two stayed like that a long moment, Yusaku and Emiko just stood in the hall immobile.

For a long moment none of them dared to break the silence, someone had to. "I need to talk to my daughter."

Yusaku said "You know the way..." showing the stairs.

Ran bowed down in front of the couple, she grabbed her daughter's wrist. They climbed up the stairs together, Ran stopped in front of the door Emiko was about to open when Yusaku caught her up. Her hand on the doorknob, she opened the dark room slowly and switched on the light. The bed was gone and the desk had been moved to the opposite side of the room but besides what could be considered as details it was still Shinichi's bedroom. In place of the bed there was a portrait of him and a lot of candles. Ran kneeled down in front of the moment, her face was already pale but still she couldn't realize. Emiko stayed silent she had done her part, she quietly kneeled down next to Ran and waited. Ran was still fighting against her tears, her body was reacting though, she felt cold, so cold that her body started to shake.

The woman breathed in and out calming herself. "We should have had this one talk a long time ago, I am sorry that I made you wait. I have no excuses, I wasn't ready. I thought that one day I'd make the trip back alone and have a talk with Shinichi... If he had agreed and I'm sure he would have, I would have introduced him to you. I never found the courage."

Emiko took her hand and caressed it with her thumb.

"I'm so stupid, if I did maybe he could have seen you at least once." Ran was looking down at their united hands.

"Mom, I've done my research and I may not have the exact date in mind but he probably died before I knew how to read." The girl had never seen her mother like that, she really wanted to ease her. Nonetheless she really believed that he wasn't dead, but one thing at a time this was all hypothesis. For now her mother had to hear and accept the fact that Shinichi Kudo was officially dead.

"Then it's even worse I shouldn't have left maybe I could have, I don't know, I could have saved him." Ran wiped off a tear that had managed to escape her eyes. "Shinichi and I, we met when were just kids but I bet you already knew that, right?" A faint smiled formed on her lips.

Emiko wore the same expression "I know you a bit, you tend to be obvious Mom."

"You may look just like your mother but you definitely got something of him. He was so smart, so gentle, he was brave, he protected me, obviously you've seen the picture he was good looking and I could go on for a long time. I was madly in love with him... I am still in love with him, that's why when Charlie talks marriage my mind goes blank, I can't move on and I don't know if I'll ever be... Did you see the London poster in my room?"

"Yes, I did."

"When I was about your age my father, Conan and I went to London what I didn't know was that Shinichi was there too. I was mad at him because he tried to hide it from me. All I wanted was to spend time with him and he was so busy with cases. Imagine that he had to literally run after me through London, a bit like I did earlier to confess his feelings. It was just under Big Ben."

"That's a cute story Mom."

"After that I didn't see him for a really, really long time. I had promised myself that I'd wait for him my whole life if I had to. Until a day, I'm not going to say much about that day you've guessed it already." This time she turned to her daughter to face her. "We didn't plan it, it just happened. I shouldn't say that but in some way it was better like this." She grabbed her shoulders "Just don't do it, please..."

"Mom please don't talk about awkward things again."

"Yeah... Yeah..." She exhaled. "The most important thing you need to know is that when I realized that I was pregnant I was really happy about it. I was scared to death that's for sure, but I didn't think a second about abortion. Hear me sweetheart, I didn't think about it, not even a nano second!"

"A nano second!" Emiko giggled and a real smile appeared on her face "I think I got it Mom. I love you too." She hugged her mother "What happened with Shinichi?" She asked pulling off.

"I guess I'll never really know... As for me, I tried to tell him but I literally didn't have the possibility to do it. Or actually I did manage to get him over the phone once but that's not the way I wanted to tell him. I thought that if he wasn't able to come... Then I thought that if he wasn't able to do so he wouldn't be there for me, nor for us... I panicked I was showing already a bit, I could still hide it using clothes trick but soon my parents would have found out." The tears came back and this time the only thing she fought for was her voice control. "My visa for England was still valid, I couldn't face all of that alone I needed to do something. I guess it was a stupid idea but I escaped."

"I have to give you that it was partly a terrible idea but only partly. Until you got me those pills you did great." Emiko teased her again.

"Oh really? What now?"

"You might have overplayed it a bit but it doesn't matter. That was cool in some ways."

Ran got up, she placed a kiss on the portrait with her forefinger and middle finger. Then she turned to Emiko and lent her a hand, at first Emiko thought that her mother wanted to help her getting up but she quickly find out that she just wanted to hold her hand.

"Let's introduce you to your grandparents." She smiled nicely to her daughter.

The women went down the wooden stairs hand in hand, as soon as the couple heard the stairs crack they ran back to the hall. It wasn't hard to guess what happened in Shinichi's room, Ran had visibly cried a lot, her face was still red. They stopped almost exactly two steps away from the Kudos, Ran felt the tears come back and hid her face looking down. She pushed Emiko a little forward and took a deep breath. For some reason this wouldn't slip through her mouth in Japanese "Let me introduce you to my daughter. She is actually your granddaughter."

Yukiko barely had time to take a peek at her husband that she had to give her attention back at Ran. The woman seemed to have collapsed onto the ground when she indeed had got down her knees on purpose. She then practically fully inclined as her forehead almost touched the ground. "I am truly sorry, so sorry. I can't ever ask you to forgive me..."

Emiko's grandmother would have liked to take her granddaughter into her arms for the very first time but she quickly decided against it. It could wait one more minute, just to give Ran what she herself thought she didn't deserve, forgivness.


	14. Sweet sweet reunion

Chapitre 14

A full day had passed but still Conan couldn't get the picture out of his head, he didn't get much sleep either since then. The few minutes he had spent with her were all over in his thoughts, yet he escaped as soon as he possibly could.

When she had recognized him, he had taken a step back. When she had taken that step towards him, he had stayed immobile. When Ran had reached for his face to see how grown up he had become, he had closed his eyes and waited. But when she had hugged him tenderly, his arms had moved on their own to make it an even closer embrace.

Emiko had stayed where she originally stood, she just watched them silently. When Ran had broken the hug in order to talk to him, Conan remembered that they were not alone. He had very impolitely played it like a really busy famous sportsman, he just took her hotel address and promised he would send her tickets to accompany Emiko and her friend.

Since then he obviously held on his promise and sent her the ticket. She would be there in the stadium watching him, the Tokyo Spirits playmaker. She would be there, the girl who had watched Shinichi Kudo playing so many times. He was panicked.

Even if the game was scheduled on the evening, morning was actually very important for his preparation. His game day started always the same way, it was a so called proper pre-game routine. Starting with a long shower, he usually would have continued by shaving. Conan took the razor, he placed it on his beard. The man hesitated for a while, shaving or not shaving and by doing so he had already broken his routine.

He made it to the kitchen 10 minutes late and he had actually shaved but kept a moustache. Ai burst in a laugh as soon as she saw his face. "What is that? What are you trying to do?"

Conan didn't really answer, it sounded like he just groaned something before grabbing his plate. He took a bite "It's cold..."

"Well it's your fault for coming downstairs this late. Blame it on the moustache!"

Conan dropped his chopsticks "How funny of you!"

Ai walked around the table, she stopped a step away from him and corrected his tie "I know that's right... Isn't that why you married me?"

The man nearly choked "I don't really feel like kidding about that."

"You know she might ask you that question when you'll have revealed yourself. You're going to do it, aren't you?"

"Of course I will! But... I just need to find the moment."

"Make sure you don't run away like the last time you saw her."

Ai tied her hair in a short pony tail, she then zipped her tracksuit "Why does the medical staff have to wear this when the team wear suits and ties? We're not the ones who are supposed to be sweating." If it was an attempt to cheer Conan up it worked. The two went together in the car and split up once at the training camp. Living on the life.

Conan knew this was going to be a total different game, the kind he had never played in his career because Ran and their daughter would be watching. It felt like it was the very first time that the pressure was on. He had broken his routine, he didn't listen too much of the briefing and spent the preparation day dreaming.

Emiko felt a lot lighter on that day, part of her quest was done, part of the secrets were gone. Yet it was only her mother's version of the truth, it wasn't enough but it was as well so much more than what she ever had. She smiled brightly taking a second to look outside, it was cloudy but she didn't bother at all she was over it. Almost nothing could break the joy wall of hers, she just had the weird sensation that a dark aura followed her all day. A step or two behind her actually, she didn't need to look for the source of darkness, Kioshi was in a very bad mood. This had a definite impact on her but it wasn't yet a crack in the wall, surely the football game would fire the boy up.

The photograph flashes merely woke him up, no autographs, no selfies the man walked straight to the changing rooms. He decided to take the day as a run of various steps, one after the other the time would eventually come. Changed, supposedly briefed by the assistant's coaches and warmed up. Conan sat and tried his best to force his own mind to go blank, to just stop the stream of running thoughts.

At the end of their high school duty the teenagers almost instantly jumped in a taxi where Ran had been waiting. Kioshi was more silent than a dead body, colder than an ice berg he barely seem to groan something whenever Emiko would talk to him. Still he made an effort in responding to Ran. Emiko just observed quietly the fact, her mother filled most of the conversation till they were dropped in a parking nearby the stadium. They came early, actually most people seemed to have the same reflex causing massive queues everywhere, somehow Ran managed to get herself a club scarf in order to show some proper support to Conan. It took them a good 30 minutes to get in the stadium, slowly Kioshi's face started to light up as the young man just couldn't resist against his own anticipation, he was still trying though. Again Emiko patiently observed the changes.

It was Ran who lead the way, finding their VIP seats was much harder than what she expected. The stadium was huge but also surprisingly beautiful, Emiko face palmed for having forgotten to take a proper camera.

The woman sat first her daughter sat beside her and the Japanese boy had no other choice than to sit next to his friend. He did his best not to look at her while she couldn't stop looking at him. She had talked enough with her mother, they reached the point where there was no fresh topic and with Kioshi upset the silence felt heavy. Very fortunately the place where they were, was full of distractions, lights and screens. The music suddenly started to play, a second later the speaker started screaming and the screens played a video showing in motion the home line-up. As far as the girl knew it was exactly the same as the British prem maybe just a tiny bit cheaper.

When Conan appeared on the screen Emiko instantly pulled on her mother's shoulder "Look!" On the clip Conan humiliated a few tired legged defenders before sending the man in between the wrong way. The playmaker gave a small celebration and his teammates jumped on his back and it all finished with a signature move shot in a studio.

"He looks so different... He is..." Ran looked fascinated for a while, even when the screen changed player she continued to think. She suddenly excused herself and left. Emiko watched her mother go, the game was about to start and this was probably her last chance to cool off her relationship with Kioshi. The British girl turned to her friend hoping that he would look at her at some point but he didn't.

"Nevermind..." She complained sighing loudly which successfully made Kioshi look at her. "Ah finally you look at me! Are you planning on telling me what the matter is?"

He looked straight in front of him, his head resting on his hand "Find out yourself!"

"How am I supposed to fix this if you don't talk to me?" The statement didn't seem to work at all which pissed her off. _You didn't give me much choice._ Without any sort of hesitation she punched his arm, not violently enough to destroy him but fairly what she thought he deserved.

"Hey! What the hell was that?" He held himself in pain.

"Find out yourself!"

"Gosh it's not a game, we are not playing. I'm not your toy, you can't just use me and place me back where you freaking took me."

Emiko backed off, frowned and looked at him straight in the eyes "Baka".

The boy froze he didn't know how to react to that, he was thankful to see Ran come back arms full of snacks. Still he continued to think, the table had turned and he clearly had missed something in the process.

The ball rolled slowly towards him, he followed it with the eyes and stopped it with his left foot. When he looked up Nathan was standing in front of him, arms crossed over his chest. "You look totally out of it today... Want to talk about it?"

"It's nothing but the pressure, don't worry" Conan smiled faintly as he grabbed the ball.

"You don't look affected by it usually. Is there a scout out there watching you? I heard that you haven't signed your contract yet."

"Oh that's right I haven't signed it yet but that's not a scout who will be watching me tonight."

"I see... Better shine on the pitch anyway, c'mon let's go, the game is about to start!"

Conan followed his team mates in the tunnel, from there he could hear the crowd loud clamor. Shining on the pitch was easier said than done, there were 21 men on the very same pitch also trying to shine. The Tokyo spirits entered it as if they were one man, they stood in line in front of their public saluting them. The playmaker foolishly tried to spot his own little public but without his glasses it was an impossible mission.

"This is just a football game there's no reason to stress this much" he thought running to his start position. He gave a look towards the seats he knew were Ran and Emiko's seat despite knowing he wouldn't see anything. The VIP seats he had bought them were surely far, but they had one main advantage which was a small TV screen. Camera had captured that moment, Ran and Emiko's eyes did so too.

A shiver went through both women bodies, a rather deep feeling of déjà-vu plunged them into a trance. However Emiko regained consciousness way faster than her mother who seemed to day dream for a moment. The daughter contemplated the mother's broad smile, there was something comforting in seeing her like that. As far as she knew, the expression Emiko was observing was a new one, she had never seen her mother with such a look before. Nevertheless it all wore off as she noticed her daughter insistent look on her.

Nathan directed a wink to Conan before kicking off and off the game started. Everybody rushed forward as one man, they also rushed immediately back when the ball was finally lost. The game wasn't poor in action and thrill, the first twenty minutes were full of fouls and opportunities. Nathan had his try which went wide, Mirqui's shot was saved and a ball bouncing towards Conan died on the post. It was bad luck but it was still domination.

"That was so close!" Emiko passed a hand through her long hair.

"I thought that was in... I thought that was in..."

"I missed you so much Mr. Fan girl" she teased, he was about to answer but the two were interrupted.

"Get up Conan-kun! I know you can do it!" Ran had jumped on her feet raising a fist in the air.

The teenagers looked at her incredulous for a little before she seemed to calm down. Conan who had kneeled down for a moment after his missed chance magically got up, perfectly synchronized with Ran's quite energetic cheering.

It felt a true switch for him, he had managed to stop over thinking and got some focus back. He ran back up the pitch and passed the halfway line in a blink, slowing down he took a second to observe the opponent. Suddenly the Tokyo Spirits number 10 sprinted in what seemed to be an odd direction, a few seconds later he intercepted the ball or rather simply collected it. He took a heavy touch in order to run away and the team ran forward like one man. Conan drove the ball slightly to the left with the fullback breathing on his neck, Nathan knew exactly where this was going and took the opposite side. Following the Australian striker's expectation Conan sent him a through ball but so expected the goal keeper who dived into his feet. Nathan just about had time to take a step aside, he fell down in the surface, the goal keeper didn't touch the ball and the referee blew his whistle. It clearly was a penalty.

Nathan stayed down a little while, he looked more exhausted than in pain or anything else. Conan quickly checked up on him and once he was sure everything was fine he pointed at the goal "Time to take your revenge Nate".

Nathan finally got up taking support on his team mate "Actually, I think it's your time to shine." The Australian gave him a little pad on the shoulder "Impress her..."

Conan stood still for a second while his friend walked away, he passed a hand in his bangs before getting on the move. The man grabbed the ball, he had missed an important penalty in front of Ran once and he wasn't going to let this happen again. He placed the ball, carefully took a few steps back, closed his eyes and breathed. He had decided, he took his first step. It would be the bottom left, he accelerated. The goal keeper was jumping, looked like he had made his mind too. Finally he made contact with the ball, the man in between the sticks fell on his right knee, he was fooled, the ball scratched the left post before finishing in the back of the net.

Goal! Conan ran towards the corner flag to celebrate while the two teenagers and their chaperone were also having a party. The man abruptly stopped as he took notice on the camera on him, with screens all over the place the last thing he wanted was a zoom on his disguise-less face.

After the break the game remained quite even, attack against attack, eventually the Tokyo Spirits killed the game from a splendid header on yet another dead ball try. Kioshi lost his bad mood in the surrounding euphoria much to his friend's pleasure. Ran had already moved on and was complaining about how complicated it was going to be to catch a taxi when a member of the staff came to her. Emiko and Kioshi couldn't hear a word of what he said as he whispered to Ran's ear, after a short moment Ran came back to them smiling. "It looks like we're going to stay a bit longer."

All 3 followed the man through multiple corridors in the stadium till they reached the parking. They waited in relative dark and silence, from time to time members of both teams staff would pass by. From afar Ran noticed another staff member from the Tokyo Spirits, she couldn't see much beside that it was a woman with a pony tail. However what truly caught her attention was the man she was talking to, a young good looking man wearing a suit, again she couldn't see much but it could only be one person.

Conan took the car keys off Ai and waved her good bye as she headed off running. Conan proceeded to look for his passengers and his car. When he noticed them Ran was still staring at him, after he took a few steps closer she ran to him to hug him. The hug lasted quite a moment, it felt so nice, he indeed was now taller than her and it was like hugging a man.

Emiko contemplated the man's reddened cheeks as her mother finally released him, she continued to stare at them, perplex and totally ignored Kioshi who was intending to chat with her. Something was wrong but she couldn't quite put her finger on it yet.

"May I drive you all back home?" Conan offered kindly.

"Sure! I mean... Aren't you supposed to go back in the bus with the rest of the team or something?" Ran wondered.

"Well, that's actually true but I got a special permission" He sent a wink to her before screaming an enthusiastic "Let's go!"

Everybody followed the so called order and got in the German sedan. As soon as he got in, Conan put on his glasses, the man stopped for a second and thought "Is this really necessary?" His disguise back on, he quickly went through their pleased reviews of the game but quickly ran out of conversation topic.

Checking the mirror Conan noticed that his daughter was staring at him, her eyebrows were frowned and she looked dead serious. She was analyzing his every moves, of course she doubted his intentions from the beginning, Conan had always been aware of that. Actually he thought it was better this way, still the way she was looking at him was very disturbing. He didn't need to look far to find the reason why she was acting like that, as he looked on his left the man realized that Ran was looking at him too. Nothing frowned on her face, she didn't seem to be doubting him at all. This was probably the real problem as she was looking at him fondly.

Conan turned pale when he would have probably blushed years ago. Nothing to be concerned about, or was it? Things needed to be cleared as soon as possible for everybody's sake.

When the sedan arrived in front of the agency Ran quickly turned to the driver to ask him if he minded to also drive her back to the hotel, instead of blurting something Conan simply gave her a nod.

Kioshi got out first as he was the closest from the sidewalk. "Good night Kioshi" Ran wished, the boy slightly bent down.

Ran then turned to Emiko "Sleep well sweetie" she smiled.

"Don't call me that!" She followed Kioshi out and her back turned to the car she saluted them "Bye, sleep well!"

Both went up the stairs as the sedan drove away.

"So... Hmmm... We didn't talk much last time" Conan said nervously, someone had to start the conversation...

"It was your fault, you practically ran away. Tell me... Did I scare you?"

"No no no, I was just surprised. I didn't expect to see you there after all these years which is kind of obvious." Conan let go the steering wheel for a second to scratch the back of his head.

"Well I was also surprised, I wasn't really expecting to see you with my daughter."

Conan had a hard time swallowing his own saliva, he was praying for her to not continue and ask what he was exactly intending to do with Emiko. In the end she didn't, Ran seemed to be day dreaming again. The two stayed silent as Conan drove through Tokyo. After a good 5 minutes Ran broke out of her thoughts.

"From what I can see it seems that things went well for you. I am really glad for you Conan-kun."

"I did just fine, I won't complain." The tone was serious, not a single string of joy lit it up.

Ran started to wonder how happy actually was the little boy she used to know "Could something be wrong?" Ran turned her top half towards the driver, arms crossed over her chest, a playful grin on the face.

Conan mentally banged his head against the steering wheel "I've recently divorced..."

She cut through his explanations "I'm so sorry..."

"I'm fine really, you don't have to worry about that. I just have other concerns..." Conan parked the car and turned to his passenger. He took a few seconds to contemplate her shiny blue eyes, his thoughts, his words, it was all gone.

"Why... Why did you stop?"

Conan pointed his thumb towards the window behind him "Well we're right in front of your hotel. Didn't you notice?"

She looked over his shoulder and giggled "Yes that's right, seems like I just made an idiot out of myself." Ran thought a second, she put a hand on the door, the opening click was heard when she was about to open her mouth.

"Ran wait!" He grabbed her wrist and let it go instantly. "Actually I just wanted to invite you for a dinner... There are a few things I want to talk to you about."

Kioshi followed Emiko up the agency stairs, it was already really late and he had a special authorisation to sleep over. Of course he had promised 10 times to Kogoro to behave himself and wouldn't break his promise for a million of iPhones. The teenagers headed to the bathroom to brush their teeth, the boy spat the remaining paste and looked at his classmate.

"Why are you always playing it so cool?" Emiko frowned as she didn't get it, Kioshi then made an okayish impression of the girl's "I'm off"

The girl cleared her mouth before speaking "I don't know, it comes naturally, it's just a quick answer. But it's also like an act you know."

"I see..." The boy placed his brush back and left for the living. He grabbed his stuff in his bags and quickly changed to his night clothes before installing himself on the sofa, his bed for the night. The boy laid down, he rested his head on the cushion, his eyes were wide open as he looked at the immaculate ceiling. He didn't even notice the grey sweater girl approaching, Emiko pushed his feet and sat on the couch and the boy couldn't do anything but sit.

Emiko was thankful that the room was barely lit by the street lights as she felt her cheeks burning red. "I just hope that you know that I am not always acting. Listen I know you're upset, I also know why but that's not what it seems. Yes that was convenient, I can give you that... But I don't just hug anyone. What I mean is that I wouldn't force myself." She got up and turned back to him "Now you know" she smiled shyly and went to bed.

When she opened the door of her room her heart raced as she could feel his breath on her neck. Her hands were shaking as she reached for her key card, she knew exactly what was going to happen as soon as she would open the door. The pressure was already on when they had taken the lift and now it was even higher.

She went in first but unfortunately failed to switch on the lights which could have helped her to keep the control. Instead of that she found herself pressed against a wall. He had surely grown, she knew that already but it became all more real when she tried to slightly move away and realized that it was impossible.

What really seemed strange to her were all the things happening inside her. Ran thought that everything about that situation was wrong but also could not get herself to push him away. She didn't want to, her own body wouldn't allow her to. Something just felt right, the woman felt herself melting when he pressed his lips against hers.

He moved his hands to her waist and started to kiss her neck. Her hands free of his, she could have used her strength to push him off her. However all of the sudden she turned weak, the only thing Ran could do was moaning "Co-Conan". Sweat was dropping along her back, slowly, tickling her, out of reflex she moved her head and banged it against the wall.

The room was quiet, the sound of the night traffic could be heard from outside as what Ran assumed to be an ambulance passed in the hotel's street. It was completely dark, this time she managed to catch the switch on her right. Once the lights were on she looked through the room, everything was exactly where it was supposed to be. Ran was covered in sweat, she brushed her hair back off her face "A dream..."


	15. Time will tell

**Hey guys it's been ages. I hope I haven't lost all of you, I know how frustrating this is I read fan fictions as well. Anyway you know what it is when you're facing a blank page, with studies, sport and a youtube channel on it took me a hell lot of time. The good thing is that I'm seeing the end and I know where this is going. Enjoy and leave a review if you're still alive...**

Ran poured a large cup of coffee for herself and sat in front of her daughter who was peacefully eating her cereals. The young girl watched her mother as she twisted her spoon till the drink got cold, with the bags under her eyes it was clear that she didn't get a decent night of sleep.

Emiko wanted to take a quick look at the clock as she had plans for the day but her mother was blocking the way. Instead she grabbed Ran's phone which was lying on the table. When she pressed the main button the actual information which caught her eyes was an impressive amount of missed calls. Thinking about it Emiko realized that her mother hadn't mentioned anything about London, nor Charlie, or about going back. It didn't even seem like she had plans at all.

"What are you going to do today?" Ran asked half yawning.

Emiko felt like Ran stole her question but improvised anyway "Well I thought I'd walk around just to see a bit, maybe take a few pictures."

"You're not going with Kioshi?"

"No I'm not, you know I don't always need somebody." She had to take the opportunity now or else her mother would never stop the questions flow. "Talking about men... How is Charlie doing?"

She was caught off guard but had to bounce back as fast as she possibly could "Well... He is doing well."

Emiko's right eyebrow got slightly higher, she looked very suspiciously at her mother as she leaned in towards her. "Are you sure?"

The woman nodded, without a word the girl grabbed her last spoon of cereals and left the breakfast table. She went in her room to put a dark grey sweater on, coming back to the table she hesitated a while. Nonetheless when she took her bag before leaving her good day-wishing usual phrase became "Again it's not my business but you really should call him back mom". Emiko kissed her good bye and ran off.

The teenage girl didn't turn back but she could tell that her mother definitely watched her go. The winter break had just started, she would have plenty of time then but couldn't possibly wait. She simply had to crack the secrets surrounding Shinichi Kudo. No she wasn't going out for a tourist walk, she had other plans for the use of her camera.

Emiko walked straight to the Kudo mansion, it was just as automatic as a program, her eyes were openbut she wasn't looking. From a fast walk she had started to run without even noticing it herself. However once arrived at the mansion she didn't stop for more than a minute, she just took a quick look at it wondering if she could spot her now confirmed grandparents. A smile appeared on her face, the family portrait was getting there.

She walked further away in the same street to her actual objective. Emiko passed smoothly in front of the Edogawas house's fence and noticed that she arrived right when they were getting out.

Conan got out of the house first, Ai followed him but stopped right on the door. She was only wearing a sweater and was unlikely going anywhere.

 _That's my chance!_ Emiko ran passing by the neighbours' property and turned left twice. The girl didn't want to miss even just a bit of their conversation, she carefully counted the number of backyards and jumped over the wall without even looking if it was the right house. No time wasted she landed more or less softly on a bush.

The time for the sprint was already done, Emiko walked silently towards Conan and Ai hiding herself behind the wall.

"Well you'll do what you want, fingers crossed it goes alright... this time" Emiko couldn't see the woman who still hadn't stepped outside.

The man was carrying a huge sport bag and was wearing dark jeans, and a white shirt. He more notably had his glasses on. "Time will tell" Conan rose up his arms before letting them fall back on his hips. He turned his back on Ai and walked to his car.

"Don't call me I'll be in the basement" Ai turned her back on him and started to walk in.

"Enjoy yourself down there! I'll be back for dinner" Conan watched her walk with a faint smile.

"Good luck out there"

Ai energetically closed the door behind her, a split second later Conan did the same. As the gates automatically opened the car went out of the front garden. The spy apprentice waited a little while just to make sure. When Emiko finally felt safe she got up just enough to see through the window. At that time the woman just had time to grab her favourite mug. Ai opened a door which Emiko was practically sure was a broom cupboard.

 _Nevermind it's actually the basement._ Emiko sighed very briefly before getting on the move. This was the most reckless thing she'd ever do or at least that's what she promised to herself. The girl got in silently, she took a good look around still standing on the hall's carpet.

Ai was checking up on her notes sitting behind her desk when her computer sent her an alert, she was surprised to see that it wasn't Conan who had forgotten something but his daughter intruding their house. She rolled slightly back with her chair in a thinking pose before she finally thought out loud "Time will tell"

The living room was ruled out straight away, way too exposed, there wasn't probably much left to find anyway. One destination instantly stood out, 007.2 climbed the stairs and much to her relief they didn't produce any sort of cracking noise. In the end she reached the second floor still out of trouble, at least for now. Nevertheless she was yet to start searching, the training room and the bathroom seemed relatively useless to search through. Another problem with the bedrooms was Emiko's own moral limits. However things were different with the office, she felt no guilt at all, it was the perfect room to search in.

Emiko closed the door gently behind her, put her stuff on the ground, as she unbent she realized that she was standing in front of a rather huge bookshelf. The lower part was occupied by a collection of binders, probably all related to taxes and different kind of bills. _The rich's problems._ A dictionary and a few language books clearly did not stand out. What was intriguing was the impressive amount of crime novels which filled the rest of the bookshelf, taking a random one she noticed that behind each of them there were at least 3 more books. If it did intrigue her, she tried her best to rationalize, people love that kind of novels no wonder those are all best sellers. Finding that collection wasn't an evidence of anything, at best it was a small hint. She was following the right track.

Something caught her eyes, the corner of a pale red file was showing at the very top of the furniture, the girl tiptoed trying to extend her body as much as possible. She was still a few inches too short, jumping could have worked but she estimated the noise as too loud, the bookshelf looked solid enough without any second thought she climbed on it finally managing to catch the file. However at the second she thought she had made it Emiko lost her balance and fell back onto the ground.

The girl froze, she was scared of getting caught because of the massive noise she might have just produced. She slowly recovered, ready to jump out at any alert. Emiko regained some calm and opened the suspiciously placed file, uncovering tons of cut news paper articles. "Disappearance, kidnapping, murders and so on. Gosh I never thought I'd know these." A noise stopped her, she froze again and listened more closely. "Ventilation... No it's a laptop!" She practically ran to the desk despite the risk that heavy steps could create.

"I'm happy for you Sonoko, you did very well even though I let you down" Ran looked down at her own hands.

Sonoko observed her friend for a moment, she had changed so much. "Stop being sorry Ran" she continued once she got her attention back "You did what you thought was best for you and for your daughter. I'd be lying if I say I wasn't mad at you back then. However it was all gone at the exact second your daughter entered my apartment."

"Did she?"

"She wanted information about her father" both laughed "She may look just like you but she is as annoying as Shinichi."

"I actually realized that when I got back here, she is a lot like him." Ran drifted outside, umbrellas suddenly bloomed as it started to rain, it was somehow captivating.

"If you ever doubt it just look at her , you did a wonderful job." Sonoko looked the same way for a second before coming back to older habits "Where is your ring?"

"I never married, actually my boyfriend proposed but I said no without no real reason. It just came out spontaneously. He was willing to give more time but I took a flight before we could talk about it. I just broke up with him" Ran said while holding on to her phone.

"By text? Ouch..."

"It's better this way... I thought Shinichi had broken my heart long ago, multiple times I thought so when he wasn't there for me and later when he wasn't there for his daughter. But I was wrong, all this time I was still waiting for him as I promised and my heart broke when Emiko told me he was dead." Tears were forming in her eyes but she fought them with all her strength.

"You didn't know? Your dad searched through everything to find him even when he knew he wouldn't find anything."

"Now don't tell me..." Emiko opened the laptop which was left on, she just had to press the spacebar and she was in. "What the heck?" Seeing the desktop she noticed this particular laptop wasn't much used, very few icons here and there. Also the favourites pages on the internet browser seemed to be weather news and the main man's email, this time blocked by a password. Once she opened the files section she realized that this laptop was mainly used for accounting duty, still she looked at the pictures. What she found was a few hundreds of news paper scans and one note file. She couldn't quite understand everything right away but she was sure those were investigation notes.

Checking her watch she realized she had lost herself in there for almost an hour. "What could she be doing in that damn basement? That will be left for another day?" She quickly searched in her bag and got the memory card out of her camera. While transferring her precious new proves she tapped impatiently the ground which sounded weirdly hollow. She tapped again and it was still the same. She kneeled down, she had enough time anyway, Emiko knocked on the floor at various places till she delimited a zone. A lath of the wooden floor seemed to be detached.

Emiko pulled it off and her hand instantly grabbed a watch, quite small she wasn't really sure that it would fit her. She twisted it all around till she uncovered the scope "What is this nonsense?" A weird noise was coming from the same hatch, Emiko investigated further and a small metallic box which smelled like anesthetic. She also found his old glasses and the bowtie both out of batteries. She suddenly came to the realization that time ran out and silently walked away.

"Bye bye miss Mouri!" Ai stretched getting out of her chair "I can finally get out of the basement. Oh my oh my... She could have been the phantom thief's daughter if she wasn't as slow as her real father."

"When are you going back to London?" Sonoko rested her head on her left hand.

"I haven't picked a date yet."

"I see you don't really want to go back."

Both women laughed a moment before Ran could regain some control "I have to go back, I have a business out there and more people that I don't want to let down... But somehow it's true. It feels home..."

Ran looked like she wanted to dream away but Sonoko wouldn't allow her to "Of course you'll always be home here, stay as long as you want to, we need to catch up some more. Why not having dinner tomorrow? You can bring your girl as well."

"Aww it sounds like a really sweet idea but I can't. I am already having a dinner with..." She paused for a second. "I am having a dinner with Conan"

"So you're on a date!" Sonoko exaggerated, she was obviously joking. Still Ran couldn't help it and blushed. "Ran you're blushing!"

She instantly covered her cheeks "No I'm not"

"Yes you are! I was just kidding. How could you possibly think that it was serious?"

Ran face palmed a few times while repeating "I don't know" before asking "Okay be honest...Am I weird?"

Sonoko took a long moment of reflection and turned more serious than ever "Well knowing you and knowing your relationship with him. I have to say it's weird..."

"Damn..." Ran knocked her head against the table.

"The situation is weird yes. But if you step aside... There's nothing wrong with you. If I think even further, he grew into a handsome man I can give you that."

"Why is my life always so complicated?" Ran then covered her face fully with both of her hands.

"I haven't seen him in a very long time but I know Ai and Conan divorced just a few weeks ago. Ran just don't do anything stupid..."

She sat back properly "Now that you mention it he told me about the divorce but he didn't told me who his wife was. It's kind of a huge detail..."

Gin, Vodka, APTX4869, its victims, Vermouth, Tropical land, the FBI, their parents death, Ki'ichiro Numabuchi, Black organization, detailed hierarchy, spies, the organization's boss, his second, the way Pisco died, other operational member of a lower importance, quite some pages were devoted to the Miyanos as well. People dying, people shrinking, drugs, weapons, liters and liters of blood and a lot of words Emiko wished she wouldn't have needed to know in Japanese.

From the day Conan first appeared at Tropical land to the day Shinichi realized he was stuck for good via the day he successfully stopped the black organization. The flow of information was huge, Emiko clearly had a proportional headache. Nevertheless the feeling was incredible, she knew. She laid down on her bed and stared at the ceiling for a while. _Now what?_

Eri's call for dinner abruptly stopped her in her thoughts. Surprisingly enough Kogoro was out having dinner with a few colleagues.

"Where is Mom?" She asked finally sitting down.

"Sonoko invited her at the last minute for dinner, I guess they need more time to catch up."

"I see, It makes sense. Too bad I had a question to ask her. It will die to live another day, tomorrow namely."

"Not sure if I understood everything but your mother will be dining out tomorrow as well."

"What? Is she ever there?" Emiko ironically complained.

"Everyone want to catch up with Ran, she had many friends and they haven't seen her for ages..."

"I got it granny it was just a joke" she leaned back sighing. "Anyway who is she dining with?"

"Conan-kun"

As soon as she heard the name the girl started to choke "Damn"

"Damn" was also the first word she said when she woke. Emiko had a feeling that things would get even more complicated on that day. Her mother was going to have a date with her father without knowing who he really was. _What could go wrong? Everything!_ The teenage girl managed to get out of her room a quarter before lunch just about time to get ready when it's holiday.

Kogoro was seemed to be deeply into the newspaper yet he was whistling. His granddaughter took a look over his shoulder and unsurprisingly didn't understand much. "What is this about?" She asked him kindly.

"Betting odds" Eri beat him to the mark. The 3 then had a peaceful lunch especially since she was only there physically, her thoughts constantly drifting away. Eri had already called her name several times when she finally got back at it. The plates were empty, Kogoro went downstairs but she was still sitting like a semi zombie.

"I invited your friend for dinner, I happened to meet him at the grocery." Eri kissed Emiko who was smiling brightly on the forehead before leaving.

Once alone Emiko banged her head on the table. Kioshi was almost like an annoying distraction at the moment still a part of her was happy. "Need to get dressed a bit more properly I guess..." she sighed heavily.

Ran had spent the morning shopping, she actually didn't initially planned on staying a long time and did not bring an adapted outfit for a night out. She skipped her lunch as the stress had caused her stomach knots though she was yet to understand what was so stressing. Hoping a shower would clear her mind, but no such luck Ran simply wasted 45 minutes of hot water for nothing. Step by step she got ready, put on a dark blue dress, choose her makeup, put it on as well, hair up, hair down and finally choosing a hair bun. Definitely it was hard to be a woman. At last she was ready and caught a cab.

While then Kioshi arrived at the agency, he was obviously disappointed when it was Kogoro and not Emiko who opened. Following Eri's indications he directly headed to his friend's room, forgot to knock and just entered. She let out a little surprise shriek "Gosh one minute earlier I would have been in my underwear" Emiko was still trying to make a proper Pony tail and then sat on her office chair.

The boy did his best to forget the missed opportunity, instead he asked right away what was on his mind "It's been almost a week since you last texted me. What happened?"

"I know that I'm being distant, I have a very good explanation but not now. First we need to get on the move and that means dinner" She grabbed his wrist and forced him to follow her to the dining room. Emiko first turned to her grandmother "Kioshi is staying over tonight" and then cut Kogoro "he'll sleep on the couch no worries".

Ran slowly made her way through the Café Raoul, trying to get some sort of analysis, she remembered going there a few times with her parents but things had changed so much. She finally spotted him at the very back of the room, Conan was starring intensely at the picture of the Pont Alexandre III his chin resting on his left hand. She took a second to look at the man before actually walking towards him.

As soon as he noticed her he jumped off his chair and bent politely in front her. "Don't bother really I got unused to it" she winked at him. They both laughed at the statement before an awkward silence started to float around them.

"So ermm have you greeted everybody yet?" Conan asked shyly to cut the awkwardness.

"It would take more than a year, I think I need to be a bit selective there."

"Well then I'm very honoured that you chose to spend time with me"

"I care about you Conan... All these years I've been worried about you and I guess in some way I'm still worried about you."

"I'm fine I promise" he gave her a comforting smile.

"What about Ai?"Ran couldn't hold herself and went for it "I'm sorry I know it's very personal but Sonoko told me... I mean divorcing is a thing okay but Ai was one of your closest friend."

"Good old Sonoko" He sighed just to give himself time to think about what to say. Whatever he would say now could be used by Ran later, Conan needed to be careful. "You're right Ai was my closest friend, I've just been listening way too much to my brain and forgot what was in my heart. In some way I tried to forget but I couldn't. We simply released each other, she's still my friend and if she needs me I'll be there. Hell it was a longer explanation than I thought it would be."

Ran laughed slightly at his struggle "Alright I got it, you're fine"

The man turned his head to the picture, he also had his own questions "It was a rather personal question. Would you allow me one as well?"

"Of course"

"Why did you come back here exactly?"

"Ah that's a good one... I came back here for my daughter, because she wanted to know her father, because I wanted to see him, because I wanted to talk to him. I seem to have a million reasons, I guess I should have done it before maybe then I would have made it in time."

"Ran..." he wanted to comfort her, take her hand but it was inappropriate and he was scared "If he was still there?"

She sat back and closed her eyes "I don't know... It's... I guess he has deserved a slap but I am not sure I would want to do that. I just don't know..."


	16. Holding on to you

**Another relatively long chapter done, I actually wanted to make it longer but it would have been another thousand words. The end is near, expect another chapter or two (or 1 + epilogue) but it will take 2-3 weeks for the sake of my grades. Anyway enjoy the chapter leave a review, a prediction or whatever.**

"Kioshi, Kioshi" Emiko whispered as softly as possible while trying to shake him "Wake up!"

The boy slowly opened an eye, everything was dark in the living room where he was sleeping. Emiko's grandparents were already sleeping and if it wasn't for her he would still be at it.

"Hurry up!" Emiko was still whispering despite doubting to be heard.

"What?" The boy was really confused.

"Get changed now, no questions."

At this order Kioshi completely woke up. _For god sake it's nearly 11!_ He followed her outside anyway, patiently waiting to get on the street before screaming "Will you tell me what's going on?"

"Sure!" Emiko waved to catch a cab. _Never thought it would work..._

The girl jumped in the car first ordering the driver to get them to the Sheraton Miyako hotel. Meanwhile Kioshi was giving her a death glare, taking notice of it she begged for one more second with a sign and turned to the driver "Do you speak English sir?" Seeing his confused face she knew the cab was a safe place to talk.

"The address you gave him... Was it your mom's hotel? Why are we going there this late?"

"Actually we might be running late and miss them."

Kioshi waved his arms all around "Who the heck are you talking about?"

"My parents" Seeing his perplex look she complied on giving further explanations. "Listen I know it may sound crazy or even impossible but not only I'm now sure my father is alive but I also found his identity. Are you still with me?"

"What you're saying is that your father pretended to be dead and hid all these years behind a secret identity... What is he? A spy?"

"It's Conan..." Kioshi was about to object but she didn't allow him to. "I know math, you don't have to worry about that. I am not good enough at chemistry to give you a logical explanation, I got the full details on my laptop if you ever want to try to understand. Anyway I now have the proof that Conan is my father, Shinichi Kudo" Emiko ended her sentence completely out of breath.

"Wow! That would make a pretty good movie plot in my opinion" He shook his head in order to give a more intelligent comment. "Does your mother know?"

"Even while holding the files I still couldn't believe it so if she ever had doubts I reckon they're long gone."

Emiko stayed deeply in her thoughts for the rest of the drive but was rather praying than really thinking. Once they made it to the hotel the girl quickly went to the reception to check if her mother had already made it back. Fortunately Ran was still out and the teenagers chose to wait in front of the hotel despite the weather looking worse and worse with every second.

Ran asked Conan to park in a further parking lot, she felt a strong urge for a walk. The woman had made her mind up. Conan suggested that he could drop her off. She had stopped resisting. When they reached the actual street Ran was holding tightly onto his arm. She was slightly leaning against him and could hear his steady heartbeat. It just felt good and from time to time she would close her eyes without even realizing it. Thus she only noticed the hotel when they were a couple of steps away.

"What now?" The question both hit them right there, it was the typical guy date a girl scene. They stood still in front of each other not knowing what to say nor what to do. Ran waited a while for him to move but in these modern times she decided that she had waited enough for two lives. "Well then..." she carelessly brushed a bang behind her ear, she took a step forward, another one and only a few centimetres away. She could feel her heart nearly exploding in her chest, that was enough she closed her eyes and aimed for the man's lips. While Ran was getting ever closer she felt him slipping away.

Conan took a step back "I can't..." The idea of kissing her was more than pleasant but it was unfair and he wouldn't allow it. Ran's face was completely red from the embarrassment, the only spot she dared to look at were her own shoes. "Ran you were right from the beginning..."

The intriguing statement made her look back at him "What?"

The man's hands started to shake "You were right... I... I am sorry. The day we met I lied to you and I don't know if I can really fix this. I am not the one you think I am, I am not Conan Edogawa."

"Conan I don't understand. What are you trying to say?" Ran took a step forward a perplex look on her face.

The first thing he did was take another step, then he put his palm in opposition to her and only let his arms fall down when Ran seemed to have understand that getting close wasn't a good idea. Conan looked up, taking a deep breath he tried to enjoy that last moment of peace. "Do you remember the stupid thing I said?" The question being rhetorical he didn't wait for an answer "At that time, in London it was the right thing to say but now I wished I said more than 'you're a tough, troublesome case' I just wished I said more..."

Ran was dumbstruck "Those words are... How could you?"

"Ran I'm sorry" for the first time since the conversation started he tried to come closer lending a hand to her.

"You can't be..." tears started to form in her eyes.

Conan knew he couldn't help it but he had to try. He placed an hand on her shoulder "Ran..."

"Don't!" She pushed him away and looked at him right in the eyes before slapping him. "Don't come close" she turned her back to him and walked in the building.

Looking for support Conan collapsed against the wall, not that he was surprised but he really needed to sit down and recover.

On the other side of the street Emiko was approximately in the same state although she was still standing. It was probably thanks to Kioshi who was supporting half of her weight. "Maybe we should check up on him?" he suggested.

"No... We're not supposed to be here. We should go home." Emiko's voice sounded weaker than usual, actually her whole body felt heavier than what it really was.

At first she just needed support but quickly Kioshi had to carry her. "Don't push yourself too much Emiko."

"Idiots" She kept on whispering the word as she fell asleep on his back. He managed to bring her back home, paying the taxi driver with all the money he had left. "Emiko you need to wake up now... I don't have the keys and you don't want me to search on you, do you?" All he managed to get verbally was a mere groan but at least she did hand him the keys attempting to stay asleep. The boy continued through to her room trying his best to be discreet with what seemed to be a dead body on his back. He opened the door and sat on the edge of her bed. "That's the moment when you're supposed to let go" he whispered softly.

However she tied her arms around his chest even tighter "Maybe you could stay with me." Clearly now she was awake, her voice's tone had changed. Late night Emiko was a completely weirder person.

What sort of proposition was that? Kioshi's face was burning red, he didn't dare to move an inch.

"I don't want to stay alone..." she continued slightly begging.

The boy needed to regain composure in order to answer something. "Emiko if we don't get changed back to our night clothes they'll know we've sneaked out..." She sighed and let herself fall on the bed feeling gravity as she never did before. Kioshi was thinking while looking at her restless face. "Alright if I give you 5 minutes to get changed and I get changed in the bathroom, do you think your grandfather will spare my life?"

It took her all her strength to straighten and open her eyes. She shrugged "Maybe..."

"Emiko!" Someone was shaking her right shoulder, she slowly turned to the annoyance [annoying] source and groaned. But despite the sound she produced the annoyance wouldn't stop. When she finally complied to open her eyes Eri was inches away from her face "You should shake Kioshi awake before your grandfather notices that he is in your bed."

Emiko fully straightened in a split second, she actually remembered asking him to share her bed despite risking other's miscomprehension. Her mind was clear enough to rationalize the situation, it was more than better to nod at what her grandmother said and do what she asked.

She did just that but before leaving Eri added "We'll have a discussion later..."

Kioshi ran to the bathroom before Kogoro had the chance to see where he came from. In the meantime the girl made sure to always chew something in order to avoid further talking with her grandmother till the bathroom was hers. Once ready Emiko casually announced that she would be off at the Kudos. Both teenagers left the agency at the same time but instantly split ways since right after a very polite goodbye Emiko ran away to catch the bus. It was way too early to discuss anything or even to walk all the way to her destination.

If she had taken one decision it was to stop interfering in her parents' lives, she'd probably mess it up even more. She could only pray for the best and also had her own preoccupations. First thing on the list was to actually get to know her newer grandparents while she could.

Actually she wasn't the only Mouri in the neighbourhood on that day, right after midday Ran also made her way on the same street. She took a moment to look at the Kudo mansion although she wasn't heading there.

The woman looked rather concerned, she didn't look much tired despite the sleepless night. She had cried, she had taken a long shower, she had lied down for hours with eyes opened to the point she knew any crack in the ceiling. Conan is Shinchi, it was a fact there was no way around it. She had doubted him before of course but yesterday was still a huge shock. At the time the only thing she wanted was to push him away but now she wanted or rather needed to know the complete truth.

Nonetheless Ran knew that she wouldn't be able to face him just yet. Instead she made sure to go to his address when he'd be absent and aimed for his ex-wife Ai, surely she'd be honest.

Ran stood a while beside the gates before pressing the call button on the intercom trying to reassure herself with the thought that maybe no one would answer.

"Residence Edogawa" Ai did answer, the intercom was perfectly working, the sound was clear and you could hear that the woman didn't hesitate at all before answering.

"Hi... It's Ran. Could I talk to you for a moment?" Ran's voice was almost as shaky as her body.

"I know it's you, I can see you... Come in I'll make some tea!"

The gates opened automatically, Ran made her way to the door and doing as the host asked she walked in the house. Directly changing to slippers was only natural as she kept the habit at home in London. She hung her coat and tiptoed to the living room. Ran took a good look around, it was so impersonal that it only took her two seconds to spot the wedding picture. She hesitated a while before getting her hands on it but couldn't resist in the end.

"Those aren't bad pictures, right?" Ai interrupted bringing the tea. She served it right away on the living room table. Ran just nodded and politely followed the host. She couldn't look at Ai just yet either and didn't dare to say a word. It was Ai who had to break the ice "What did you want to ask? And please don't be scared to ask I usually don't bite."

Ran gave a little sigh before starting "Well since Conan or Shinichi told me... I don't even know how should I call him anymore but whatever. It got me thinking tonight about you two, how back then you were both different from the other kids and since Conan is Shinichi... I started to wonder about you. Who are you Ai? If that's your name."

"Firstly you need to know that I don't really like talking about that... No that's not my name but my name doesn't really matter. It doesn't define who you are it's just a name in the end. Still you deserve to know... To sum it up I was on the bad guys side and by bad guys I mean the people who did this to Shinichi. It wasn't a choice but it happened to be so." Ran looked more confused than ever, Ai didn't know how long she'd be able to keep talking about the past, her legs felt like they wanted to escape on their own. The woman gave them a break and walked to the window trying to organize her thoughts somehow. "It was my fault, I created the drug which turned both of us in what we are." Ai quickly fought against herself and sat back next to Ran.

Ran took a long moment to think before saying anything, this was so much. "How old are you?"

Ai gave a faint laugh "A bit older than you."

"When did all of this happen?"

"Tropical land..."

Ran punched the low table "Of course! I should have seen that one coming." Ran then let herself fall back "How did he manage to revert back? I know he did, it couldn't have been magic Kaito all along."

"I did create an antidote, actually I created a few but he's taken too much to the point it could kill him. He reasonably decided to remain as Conan and I gave childhood another go."

"I feel so lost! I have no idea of what I should do with my life now and there's Emiko as well" She pressed both of her hands on her face.

"I know exactly what you should do Ran. You should talk to him" She gave her a gentle pad on the shoulder.

She sighed "I know I know. I just need time, as you may have noticed I am a bit confused."

"We're friends, we're just friends" Ai walked to the chimney, grabbed a picture frame and handed it to Ran. It was the picture of them on a hiking trip a little while after they got married, Conan was holding her shoulder while trying to pose and Ai was smiling shyly a pair of sun glasses hiding half of her face. "You might have watched the wrong picture, this one is more like it."

"This is a good picture as well!"

"Ran I'm his best friend, he's told me everything about you and his feelings for you. I never had a slight hope he'd ever choose me over you cause I knew everything. I won't deny that I tried to hold on to him when I first saw Emiko, I just needed time to think about what would be best for both of us and you already know the rest."

The women exchanged a long comforting hug, everything that needed to be said was said. Ran also needed time to think about what would be best. She came to the conclusion that despite the anxiety growing inside she'd have to talk to Conan. A part of her was even dying to but for now a larger part of her was worried over Emiko.

There was nothing better than a long walk back home or actually a really long walk back to her hotel but she wasn't 500 meters away when her mobile phone rang.

"Hi mom! I am on my way back to the hotel. Do you want me drop by?... Emiko? No, I haven't seen her today... Hmm did she?... No mom you don't have to worry it's just, you know she's western and I got this already..." She turned her head to peek in at the Kudos mansion yard, that's when she heard a small click.

"I GOT YOU MOM!" Emiko was waving at her from behind the bushes in the Kudos yard with her camera attached around her neck.

"Emiko is here, I'll call you back mom!" Ran hung up and opened the squeaky gates. To think that the last time she came here her daughter told her that Shinichi Kudo was dead. She breathed in, the pain was gone now and breathed out they'll be okay. "What are you doing sweetheart?"

"As you see I'm taking a few pictures." Emiko was smiling brightly at her mother, her face was completely red from the cold.

Ran took her right hand out of pocket and placed it on Emiko's cheek "Your mother never told you to stay in when it's this cold?"

"Says the woman whose coat is opened" she smiled even brighter showing a grin that reminded her mother of the old days Shinichi.

"What brought you here?"

"Surprisingly it was my grandparents. And you?"

"I was passing by..." Ran grabbed her daughter's shoulder and drove her to the bench. She cleared her throat trying to sound serious "So... Now you sleep with boys?" Emiko turned completely red, her body entirely paralyzed, she felt herself burning up and desperately tried to stutter something. "Hey hey calm down honey! I was kidding, you made it clear that you weren't ready for that sort of things. What I really wonder is... Why did you need to hold him for?"

Emiko was cornered, she couldn't tell her mother that she got her heart broken when she saw her parents hurting each other. The girl hid her mouth deep in her coat collar "I don't want to talk about it" her voice barely came out of it.

Ran raised her hands up "I see that you know your rights very well Miss." She bent down to catch Emiko's eyes "Tell me at least... Are you in love?"

"How is this supposed to be an easier question?" She finally stopped hiding

The mother kissed her daughter's cheek "You don't need to bother I already know the answer... Aw Emiko that's so cute!"

"Stop it mom please!" Emiko gently pushed her mother off.

Ran sighed , her eyes looking elsewhere "The more I think about it the more I realize that you're a lot like him... Just don't wait too long, okay?"

The car gates automatically opened to let a German sedan in, the car entered backwards and suddenly Emiko could feel her mother tense up. It didn't take more than a minute till Conan got out of the car and Ran completely froze in a stone statue pose. Emiko waited a second hoping she'd recover but she didn't. Conan politely waved at them and without further ado headed to his trunk. It was their chance, the teenage girl ran in at full speed leaving her mother dumbstruck, she placed herself in the kitchen where Yukiko was preparing dinner. The woman took a quick look at her and didn't bother to ask what made her rush in. Seconds later both women turned to the sound of a man clearing his throat, namely Conan who was carrying what seemed like an heavy box.

"Hey Yukiko-san, hmm I brought the stuff Yusaku-san asked me to. Where can I put it?"

Yukiko quickly checked her granddaughter's face, it was useless Emiko's poker face was perfect as she kept on looking outside. Conan and his actual mother tried to communicate by signs but they quickly gave up. As soon as Conan went back outside, Emiko crumpled her shirt with her right hand.

"Come on mom!" Emiko cheered between her teeth earning a smile from Yukiko.

Surprisingly Ran hadn't moved an inch, she was looking down making Emiko wonder what she could possibly be thinking. When Conan made it outside, she looked up at him perhaps he said something. They really did seem to be talking, no way Emiko would be able to read on their lips in Japanese but still she was dying to know. Conan went to the car trunk again, Ran was searching for something in her handbag, a small piece of paper which Emiko clearly identified as her mother's visit card. Ran quickly wrote something on it and handed to Conan. The man took it and placed it in his back pocket. Ran was still talking to him while he just nodded.

In a perfect choreography they both managed to avoid each other going exactly the same way. Ran first went in to say goodbye to Emiko and Conan dropped a toolbox in the hall. Both leaved in a similar relatively fast speed.

If only she could have heard what they said, her only wish was that everything would be alright. Maybe it was a bit too much to ask for a reunion but if she could at least get to know more officially her father that would be enough. At least she thought so, for now she was getting to spend time with the Kudos. They had lunch together, they had dinner together and Yukiko logically prepared a bed for her.

Emiko kindly accepted although she locked herself in the bedroom right after dinner, she wished she could have stayed in Shinichi's room but it seemed like Yukiko wouldn't allow it. She lied on her back for hours, in bed unable to sleep.

 _Why? Just why people can't say it properly? They love each other, I know they do. One of them has to go for it, just say "I love you"..._

She rolled on her side before jumping off to get changed. Emiko took off her shirt and bra and tossed everything to the ground.

"She says that I shouldn't wait too long but how long has she waited herself? She is probably still waiting... I am not waiting, I won't say a word to Kioshi about my feelings so there's nothing to wait for." She sighed and crashed onto the bed "Why am I saying all of that out loud anyway?"


	17. Racing hearts

"I'm glad you came. Come in, close the door behind you" Ran walked to the window, she rested against the glass. "Take a seat please" She crossed her arms over her chest, Ran took a moment to look at the man's face, a long moment to look at his face. So familiar that she almost wanted to touch it, to hold with both hands. Ran's face had softened on its own but she took the control back "Where to start... How should I call you? Conan? Shinichi?"

"If there's anyone who could possibly choose it's you."

"You're not answering my question..." Ran stretched and sat on the armchair in front of him.

"They call me Conan, everybody does, even my parents call me that way."

"I'm not surprised, you lived nearly longer as Conan than as Shinichi so it's only logic."

"Something like that..." He was almost shaking and seemed unable to add anything to the statement.

Ran could clearly see it, she could feel the hesitance in his voice but she wasn't going to spare him just yet "The same goes for you and Ai. You spent more time with her than with me, you even got married."

Conan's heart started a race in his chest still he needed to think straight "Ran I swear it's never been romantic. We just had each other for comfort and... It felt nice to not lie to someone."

He was looking down and didn't notice Ran's hand approaching till she touched his own "That's unnecessary Conan, it wasn't a reproach. Maybe I should be jealous, but I am not.." She took her hand back "I didn't really mean to wait for Shinichi to come for me, I just kept myself busy, really busy. It was the perfect excuse to go around the social obligation of dating. I tried just once, I have to say that it wasn't that bad."

"Charlie?"

"Yeah Charlie..." She sighed "The poor man didn't see it coming, I got here and realized that I had to stop the comedy. In football terms that'd be called a draw."

The playmaker smiled faintly "I feel like you're going a bit too easy on me."

"That's right I probably should have got angry because you lied to me countless times, you even kept the comedy running when I was with you in Tokyo."

"I'm sorry Ran" Again his eyes were directed to the ground.

"But I'm not getting angry because I knew, deep inside I always knew so I just should have trusted myself. Also I feel like I can't be mad at you Conan, you were always there for me till I left... Also I'm not completely innocent either, I ran away with our child and I wanted to apologize. I'm sorry."

"Ran, I mean it's... I blamed it on myself all along and if you feel guilty for anything let me first tell you that you're not and if you still feel so I'd be more than happy to forgive you." Conan got slightly overwhelmed in his little speech, as he realized it his embarrassment was visible on his face and he started to scratch the back of his head "We're not going to spend the day apologizing, are we?"

Ran giggled "No of course not. Oh actually I wanted to give you something, let me find it."

"Do you have a present for me?" The man got back to a more usual smirk.

"Well not really, it's not much." She handed him a flash drive "It won't really be enough to catch up but I've gathered as many pictures and videos of Emiko."

"I guess I don't have to worry about theatres programs" He placed the item in the inside pocket of his jacket.

"Conan..." Ran sat on the edge of the bed she seemed embarrassed. The woman was clearly avoiding eye contact, she was looking outside while holding her elbow. "What do you want?"

At first the man didn't really understand, the question was quite sudden as well but after a blush appeared on Ran's face he finally understood. The panic made his body temperature rise quickly still he had to say something. He got up and walked to her "Ran I wouldn't dare to ask you for a chance with you still..." He stopped, sat next to her and sighed a couple of times "I know that I have no rights on Emiko, even if I wanted to I can't even prove that she's my daughter. I want to know her and if possible to be a father."

"Would you tell her everything?"

"Yes, if you allow me to of course..." He attempted to place his hand but Ran took it back as soon as they made contact.

"We will see, I still need to think about it... Humm the hotel's restaurant seems completely okay and now that we're done with... How would you call it? Parental talk, maybe? Shall we have a nicer talk at the restaurant?"

Conan hadn't recovered yet from his try and despite his embarrassment gladly accepted.

It didn't take more than a minute for Ai to notice Conan didn't come back home. She stood a second at the window smiling for no real reason. Conan being absent didn't prevent her from living life on, she got ready just like the usual. The problems started as they would usually have gone to the training facilities together but she actually decided to take this as the beginning of her life without Conan.

A life where she'd have to take the bus, it was nothing too annoying but still. Walking along the empty street to the bus stop she got a weird impression as if she was followed. Just where did that came from? A noise, it probably was just the wind mixed with some good old paranoia. A man was already standing by the bus stop sign, at the moment she laid her eyes on him she saw him raise his hand and turned back to see the bus coming.

The trip went relatively fast listening to music. A part of her was dying to know how her ex-husband's conversation with Ran went but she could only produce a long list of alternatives. She'd know everything soon or hopefully she would depending what Conan decides to share. Ai was taken away from these thoughts when she had to get off, the woman still had a good 5 minutes of walk ahead of her. After a little while she noticed a man walking behind her, the same man who called the bus. She slowed down, he slowed down. Ai turned back making sure they would make eye contact, not only she confirmed that he was following her but also she wanted him to know that she noticed. It was proven to be very effective as a few hundred meters away he had disappeared. Who could be following her?

Finally she made it to the facilities, Ai searched through the parking lot, their car wasn't there. She waited a while, a car got passed the entrance but it was only Nathan.

"Mrs Edogawa! Ohayogozaimasu!"

"Hey Nathan! You should really start calling me by my actual name you know..."

Nathan walked towards her, a bit too close to her taste but it was something foreigners tend to do and they seem to never learn it.

"Now that's embarrassing... I don't know your name" Nathan typically scratched the back of his head.

She smiled at him, she had worked there for almost 2 years and no one knew her name it was far time "You can call me Ai."

"It's not your last name, is it?" He frowned in complete confusion.

"It's actually my first name. Can you believe it?" They started to laugh and laughing felt so good and natural for Ai.

*CLICK* She definitely heard it. Ai instantly had a feeling of déjà vu, she had heard that sound before.

"We should get in, none of us can really afford to get sick."

Her eyes weren't even opened yet but she could already feel the light in the room, she had forgotten to close the curtain so it was only logic. Everything was so quiet when she gained consciousness. Her mind was perfectly clear therefore she didn't need more than a second to straighten. Ran simultaneously hit the other side of the bed only to get her hand bouncing back on the mattress. Her heart was pounding so fast, he couldn't have done this to her.

Ran held the cover against her bare body taking a good look around her. No sign of Conan. She jumped out of the bed and in some clothes. That's when she heard it.

The bathroom door creaking made her freeze right where she stood. Conan magically appeared in front of her. He was almost ready to leave, just repositioning his sleeves when she was only wearing panties and the first t-shirt she found.

"Did I wake you up?"

Ran remained silent as she felt tears forming she looked down a while "No... I thought you were gone!" She slowly walked back trying for the bed before collapsing on it.

"Oh..." Conan wanted to calm her down but it wasn't easy when she wouldn't take her hands off her face. He had no other choice but to grabbed her arms and brought it down. "Ran I couldn't bring myself to wake up when you were sleeping so deeply. Instead I postponed it and prepared first but I would have said goodbye. I promise I wasn't going to leave like that."

Ran punched the mattress with her right fist "I'm sorry I overreacted... But it's only your fault!"

He kneeled down "I know Ran..."

She washed the tears off with the back of her hand "Be honest with yourself please. What do you want from me? Say it!"

"Ran I'd lying if I say that I don't want you back, of course I do and I kno..."

"Stop!" She placed a finger on his mouth "I've shown enough how I feel about you yesterday but it doesn't matter how I feel. You hurt me as Shinichi, again it doesn't matter. I can forgive you, I might have already..." She got up and opened the wardrobe to take a bathrobe. "Emiko is young and I want to protect her. I'm sure you understand."

"Of course... I don't want to do any harm to her, I love her." He gathered his courage and took her hands.

Ran smiled for the first time since she woke up "I know you do. Still I would want to believe all of your words Conan..." She placed her hands on his chest and ran them up to his face "If Shinichi Kudo is still in there I'm sure he will understand that I want proves."

"I'm on it."

"That's the least I expected from you Conan" She took her hands off his face to place them behind her back. She was staring at his blue eyes, they didn't change one bit, the same ones she fell into many years ago. The man opened his mouth as if he was about to say something but Ran interrupted him "I know you're late, aren't you?"

He smirked, she simply knew everything... Conan tiptoed to kiss her forehead, he wouldn't allow himself to take more initiatives yet. He planted his feet in order to start a run, which he did but only as far as the door knob. He walked back to her and popping his head up from behind the wall "I ordered you a breakfast, it's on me of course."

Her smile had clearly made it to the bright side, he was trying hard and it was working "You really should better get going."

"I'll call you!" He sprinted away smashing the door on his way.

Emiko overslept causing her morning to have gone away in her sleep. Again too many thoughts kept on running in her mind when she was intending to sleep.

After missing out on their lunch, Emiko managed to join Kioshi for a casual afternoon in Akihabara. They went to the cinema and besides to pick the movie the Japanese boy didn't say anything. When they went to the game centre, a place she reckoned he might like, he barely touched a joystick. Again when they went to the local Starbucks imitation he didn't say a word and refused to order anything.

The British girl tried her best to stay calm even if she actually wanted to grab his shoulders and shake the hell out of him.

Emiko threw her head back turning her coffee can completely upside down to get the very last sip of it. Breathing in and out she didn't say anything, it was a very quiet afternoon indeed. However Emiko clearly felt her blood boil after a few hours and she just couldn't keep it in any longer.

She stopped just a second to think, allowing Kioshi to be a good step ahead of her. She planted both of her feet in the ground and caught his wrist from behind. He had no other choice but to face her. "Tell me Kioshi... What's the matter? What did I do to upset you?"

He looked down "Nothing..."

Emiko sighed all the air filling her lungs "Okay I understand social conventions are a bit different over here but hell, if you have something to say just say it!"

Her facial expression was horrible, she was definitely pissed but on another level. It didn't seem like she would let him run away without a proper explanation. Still his heart started to melt as he realized that she was yet to let go off his wrist and a slight blush appeared on his face, which was very fortunately hidden by the cold wind. "I was just thinking you know..." he stopped there.

Emiko let go off him to face palm herself "Is that your explanation? Now you're supposed to tell me what you were thinking about."

He placed his hand in his coat pockets and started to walk again making the girl run to catch up "Tell me Emiko... You're going back to London at the end of the school year, aren't you?"

Now she was confused "Well of course I am."

He looked up for a moment "I guess it can't be helped, it's your home."

"Actually no it's not, at least it doesn't feel so. You don't know that but when I am in London people only see in me an Asian foreigner. They even call me Chinese but that's another story... My point is despite being fully British, being raised and born there I will always remain a foreigner. So I thought since both my parents are from Tokyo maybe this could be my home but clearly I also feel like a foreigner here. The truth is that I am yet to find a place to call home."

"Wow that's more complicated than I thought it was" For the first time since the conversation started he actually dared to glance at her.

"It is It is... Hey don't go thinking that's a good enough explanation!"

"I was just thinking that you're going to leave us and that I'll miss you... I'll miss you so much."

"Aww" the sound escaped her lips without any sort of control. She instantly brought him close and tied her arms around his back to hug him, a nice tender and very long hug.

She was his best friend and there seemed to be no way to keep her by his side. That's the moment he decided that he would keep his feelings inside, there was no point in trying to bring her closer if she was already thinking of leaving him. He felt tears forming in his eyes even though the expected end was still relatively far away, he closed his eyes as his pride wouldn't allow her to notice and responded to the hug with equal tenderness. Time flew by as they stood still a long while, 5 minutes or maybe 10 till the girl placed her hands on his shoulder to pull away. She sent shivers through his body when she unintentionally grazed his cheek with hers.

"I'll miss you too. I even started to think about weird plans such as fitting you into my suitcase unfortunately I heard that's illegal."

He smiled shyly at her nonsense, something afar caught his eyes. He wasn't completely sure but his fan boy had spotted something. "Wait for me here, I'll be back in a minute I just need to buy something. Just wait, okay?"

Emiko obeyed although she had no idea of what could be so urgent, she just looked at him running to the nearby store. He came back after a 5 minutes which was an eternity for the impatient girl, Emiko instantly noticed that he had a magazine wrapped under his arm. He walked slowly to her, way too slowly. "Why did you leave all of sudden for a magazine?"

"I am not sure that's a good idea... It's the cover... I mean when I was right here with you I saw someone with the magazine..."

"Give it to me already!" She filched it from him and instantly let out a gasp when she saw the cover. "Wait wait wait... It's the corridor of mom's hotel room I recognize it!"

"Jeez give it back you shouldn't be looking at this!"

"Why did you buy it then if it wasn't to show me?"

"Well I thought... It doesn't matter what I thought it's your parents kissing on a magazine cover. Just stop looking at it anyway!"

"Come on Kioshi it's just a picture and besides that it's only good news right?" The boy shrugged in a giving up fashion, he knew she was going to be right. "One last thing... Can you tell me what's written there?"

"What? You still can't read it for yourself?"

Emiko frowned before grabbing his shoulder "It takes years to master Japanese but you know that already."

Her nails unconsciously started to dig into his shoulder, not enough to hurt him thanks to his thick winter jacket but far enough to stop him from anymore joking "Divorce drama intensifies, that's what is written."

Her hand relaxed on his shoulder till she pulled him a little down to her height and gave him a kiss on the cheek. The second her lips touched his skin her heartbeat sped up, her temperature rose. Biology taught her that it was a natural reaction to danger allowing your body to prepare for escape.

She just ran without looking back, straight to the agency forcing her way through the people and nearly tripping a few times. Emiko was hoping that Kogoro wouldn't have heard about it yet and could drive her to Ran's hotel since another cab bill would have ruined her. A twenty minutes nonstop run through Tokyo, nothing undoable for such a well trained girl but still Emiko was exhausted when she reached the stairs leading to her grandfather's office. She knocked but didn't get any answer. When she was about to open the door Emiko heard loud voices coming from upstairs one of those being his.

The teenager jumped the last stairs separating her from the door, the vague Japanese screaming finally became clearer.

"You have no right to tell me such things! I took my independence many years ago now so all of this is none of your business." _It's mom! Well at least going to the hotel is useless now._

"We see what it is, actually everybody does see it. Yet you still say it's not our business..."

Kogoro ended with a groan, it was the go Emiko was waiting for. She had to interrupt them as quickly as possible or else it would go too far. She hid the magazine in her bag with her left hand and opened the door with her right hand. The young girl didn't need to say anything, just her presence stopped everything.

"Elephant in the room, huh?" Emiko looked straight at Kogoro hoping it would help to cool him down. She then more shyly turned to her mother who seemed to be whispering "Sweetheart..." Ran looked at her parents and received an approbation nod from her mother. She then drove her to her former bedroom closing the door behind them. Emiko placed her bag next to the desk, Ran sat on the side of the bed.

"So... I assume that you already know why your grandfather was screaming at me..."

Emiko looked to her bag "I do."

Ran instantly covered her face with both hands in embarrassment but recovered quickly "Emiko it's..."

Emiko directed both of her palms towards to stop her, she walked to the window "Mom you don't have to explain to me if you don't feel like it."

Ran's face eased suddenly even turning to a bright smile, she joined her daughter "I just don't know yet what it will be. I need time..."

Ran caressed gently the back of Emiko's head and brought her closer in a tender embrace. Emiko felt her mother tensed up before suddenly letting go off her. She ran away in a fashion that reminded the young girl of herself. Where and why could she be running? Emiko stood perplex in her room, turning around she found an answer when she caught the sight of Conan's car.

 **AN: The end is near! Could you believe it? I started this fiction about a year ago and now I can finally see the end of it. It might take me another month to write the next chapter which is probably the last one. It will actually consist in a double upload with a short epilogue. Don't forget to review, let me know anything and I really mean anything**


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